Jose Valdo Madeira

Detoxification of castor bean residues and the simultaneous production of tannase and phytase by solid-state fermentation using Paecilomyces variotii.

In this work, we introduce a biological detoxification method that converts toxic waste from castor beans into animal feed material. This method simultaneously induces the production of tannase and phytase by Paecilomyces variotii; both enzymes have high levels of activity and have the potential to be used in feedstuffs because they decrease overall anti-nutritional factors. The maximum tannase and phytase activities obtained were 2600 and 260 U/g after 48 and 72 h, respectively. SDS-PAGE electrophoresis of the fermented castor cake extracts revealed a reduction in ricin bands during fermentation, and the bands were no longer visible after 48 h. The cytotoxicity of the extracts was evaluated by MTT testing on RAW cells, and a progressive increase in cellular viability was obtained, reaching almost 100% after 72 h of fermentation.

Simultaneous extraction and biotransformation process to obtain high bioactivity phenolic compounds from brazilian citrus residues

Recent studies have pointed to a reduction in the incidence of some cancers, diabetes, and neuro‐degenerative diseases as a result of human health benefits from flavanones. Currently, flavanones are obtained by chemical synthesis or extraction from plants, and these processes are only produced in the glycosylated form. An interesting environmentally friendly alternative that deserves attention regarding phenolic compound production is the simultaneous extraction and biotransformation of these molecules. Orange juice consumption has become a worldwide dietary habit and Brazil is the largest producer of orange juice in the world. Approximately half of the citrus fruit is discarded after the juice is processed, thus generating large amounts of residues (peel and pectinolytic material). Hence, finding an environmentally clean technique to extract natural products and bioactive compounds from different plant materials has presented a challenging task over the last decades. The aim of this study was to obtain phenolics from Brazilian citrus residues with high bioactivity, using simultaneous extraction (cellulase and pectinase) and biotransformation (tannase) by enzymatic process. The highest hesperetin, naringenin and ellagic acid production in the experiment were 120, 80, and 11,250 µg g−1, respectively, at 5.0 U mL−1 of cellulase and 7.0 U mL−1 of tannase at 40°C and 200 rpm. Also, the development of this process generated an increase of 77% in the total antioxidant capacity. These results suggest that the bioprocess obtained innovative results where the simultaneous enzymatic and biotransformatic extracted flavanones from agro‐industrial residues was achieved without the use of organic solvents. The methodology can therefore be considered a green technology.

Agro-Industrial Residues and Microbial Enzymes

Abstract Bioconversion of renewable lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels and high value-added products is nowadays a field of much attention and promise. Furthermore, lignin can be used for the smooth generation of polymers using laccase or a laccase-mediator system. Food industries provide other important uses of residues, such as underutilized fish, and by-products from the fishing industries for the production of bioactive peptides using microbial proteases. On the other hand, fat wastes, such as waste from cooking oil, are very interesting substrates for the production of industrially relevant compounds, mainly biodiesel, using lipases from different microorganisms. Again, phenolic compounds are very important because of their biological activities, presenting impressive antioxidant activity. More interestingly, they can be obtained using enzymes from different microorganisms, which are capable of producing antioxidative phenolics from different wastes. Although microbial enzymes are highly effective tools for modifying agro-industrial residues in generating high value-added products, the use of native enzymes are frequently infeasible in large scales. Therefore, different techniques of molecular biology are necessary to surpass these limitations. These techniques include the use of expression models that are more feasible for the industrial production of enzymes, and genetic and protein engineering focusing on the overexpression of the enzymes to have the desired enzymes with improved characteristics, such as better enzymatic activity, stability, and selectivity.