Worapot Suntornsuk

Fungal chitosan production and its characterization

Aims:  The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the chitosans produced by several species of fungi.

Feather degradation by Bacillus sp. FK 46 in submerged cultivation

Cultivation conditions affecting feather degradation by Bacillus sp. FK 46 were investigated. The results showed that feather was almost completely degraded under the following conditions: 1% whole chicken feather as a substrate at the initial medium pH of 9 with 5% bacterial inoculum, at a temperature of 37 degrees C and a shaking speed of 250 rev/min. Glucose, methanol, Tween 80 and Triton X-100, however, had no effect on feather degradation. After feather was degraded, its residue and fermented broth would become a protein feed for animals.

Fungal chitosan production on food processing by-products

Abstract Four fungal strains, Aspergillus niger TISTR3245, Rhizopus oryzae TISTR3189, Zygosaccharomyces rouxii TISTR5058 and Candida albicans TISTR5239, grown on soybean and mungbean residues were investigated for their chitosan production. Their chitosan yields were in a range of 0.4–4.3 g/kg of soybean residue and 0.5–1.6 g/kg mungbean residue. The highest amount of chitosan by R. oryzae on soybean residue was 4.3 g/kg.

Recent applications of microchip electrophoresis to biomedical analysis

Many separation methods have been developed for biomedical analysis, including chromatographic (e.g. high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC)) and electrophoretic methods (e.g. gel electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis (CE)). Among these techniques, CE provides advantages in terms of high separation efficiency, simplicity, low sample and solvent volume consumption, short analysis time and applicability to a wide range of biomedically important substances. Microchip electrophoresis (ME) is a miniaturized platform of CE and is now considered as a simpler and more convenient alternative, which has demonstrated potential in analytical chemistry. High-throughput, cost-effective and portable analysis systems can be developed using ME. The current review describes different separation modes and detectors that have been employed in ME to analyze various classes of biomedical analytes (e.g. pharmaceuticals and related substances, nucleic acids, amino acids, peptides, proteins, antibodies and antigens, carbohydrates, cells, cell components and lysates). Recent applications (during 2010-2014) in these areas are presented in tables and some significant findings are highlighted.

Toxic Compound, Anti-Nutritional Factors and Functional Properties of Protein Isolated from Detoxified Jatropha curcas Seed Cake

Jatropha curcas is a multipurpose tree, which has potential as an alternative source for biodiesel. All of its parts can also be used for human food, animal feed, fertilizer, fuel and traditional medicine. J. curcas seed cake is a low-value by-product obtained from biodiesel production. The seed cake, however, has a high amount of protein, with the presence of a main toxic compound: phorbol esters as well as anti-nutritional factors: trypsin inhibitors, phytic acid, lectin and saponin. The objective of this work was to detoxify J. curcas seed cake and study the toxin, anti-nutritional factors and also functional properties of the protein isolated from the detoxified seed cake. The yield of protein isolate was approximately 70.9%. The protein isolate was obtained without a detectable level of phorbol esters. The solubility of the protein isolate was maximal at pH 12.0 and minimal at pH 4.0. The water and oil binding capacities of the protein isolate were 1.76 g water/g protein and 1.07 mL oil/g protein, respectively. The foam capacity and stability, including emulsion activity and stability of protein isolate, had higher values in a range of basic pHs, while foam and emulsion stabilities decreased with increasing time. The results suggest that the detoxified J. curcas seed cake has potential to be exploited as a novel source of functional protein for food applications.

Capillary zone electrophoresis for enumeration of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus in yogurt

Enumeration of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus is a priority due to their importance in yogurt production. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) of both bacteria could be achieved in 7.2 min with a resolution of 3.2 in the background electrolyte (BGE) containing 4.5mM Tris(hydroxymethyl) amminomethane (TRIS)-4.5 mM boric acid-0.1 mM ethylenediamine tetraacetate (EDTA) (TBE) buffer (pH 8.4) and 0.05% (v/v) polyethylene oxide (PEO), using a capillary of 47.5 cm (effective length) x 100 microm i.d., injection of 50 mbar x 3s followed by -5kV x 120s, a voltage and temperature of 20 kV and 25 degrees C, respectively. Appropriate amounts of PEO in the BGE, sample preparation (i.e. vortex) and introduction were key factors for their separation. A short hydrodynamic injection followed by applying reversed polarity voltage could compress the bacteria into narrow zones, which were detected as separated single peaks. Method linearity (r(2)>0.99), precision (%RSDs<9.3%), recovery (%R=91.7-106.7%) and limit of quantitation (1.0 x 10(6) colony forming unit per mL (CFU/mL)) were satisfactory. Results from the CE analysis of both bacteria in yogurt were not statistically different from those of the plate count method (P>0.05). The CE method can be used as an alternative for quantitation of L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus in yogurt since it was reliable, simple, cost and labor effective and rapid, allowing the analysis of 3 samples/h (comparing to 2d/sample by plate count method).

Yeast cultivation in lettuce brine

The use of lettuce brine, a by-product of the vegetable fermentation industry, as a medium for yeast cultivation was investigated. Six strains of yeast, Saccharomyces sp., Pichia sp., Rhodotorula sp., Candida sp., Kluyveromyces sp. and Trichospora sp. grew well in diluted lettuce brine under aerobic conditions. The acid brine becomes neutral after yeast cultivation. The yeast strains reached the maximum growth after the first day of cultivation. Trichosporon sp. was found to grow best in the brine with the maximum specific growth rate at 0.09 h−1 and growth yield of 67%.

Rapid separations of nile blue stained microorganisms as cationic charged species by chip-CE with LIF

Rapid detection of microorganisms by alternative methods is desirable. Electromigration separation methods have the capability to separate microorganisms according to their charge and size and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection have single‐cell detection capability. In this work, a new combined separation and detection scheme was introduced using chip‐based capillary electrophoresis (chip‐CE) platform with LIF detection. Three microorganisms Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans were selected as representatives of Gram‐positive bacteria, Gram‐negative bacteria, and fungi. While their cells carry an overall negative charge in neutral to alkaline pH, staining them with nile blue (NB) provided highly sensitive LIF detection with excitation and emission wavelengths at 635 nm and 685 nm, respectively, and at the same time, the overall charge was converted to positive. Electrolyte pH and concentration of polyethylene oxide (PEO) significantly affected the resolution of the microorganisms. Their optimal separation in the 14 mm separation channel was achieved in less than 30 s (Rs > 5.3) in an electrolyte consisting of 3.94 mM Tris, 0.56 mM boric acid, 0.013 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt dihydrate (pH 10.5), and 0.025% PEO, with injection/separation voltages of +1000/+1000 V. The separation mechanism is likely employing contributions to the overall cationic charge from both the prevalently anionic membrane proteins and the cationic NB. Importantly, the resulting cationic NB‐stained cells exhibited excellent separation selectivity and efficiency of ∼38000 theoretical plates for rapid separations within 30–40 s. The results indicate the potential of chip‐CE for microbial analysis, which offers separations of a wide range of species with high efficiency, sensitivity, and throughput.

Characterization and in vitro biological activities of Thai traditional fermented shrimp pastes

In this work, chemical and biological characteristics of two types of Thai fermented shrimp paste, Kapi Ta Dam and Kapi Ta Deang, at different fermentation periods and their raw materials were investigated. Kapi had low water activity and high proteins with high glutamic acid and lysine. Both Kapis, which had different sources, showed similar characteristics. The number of lactic acid bacteria in the products increased during the early stages of fermentation. Free α-amino acid contents in the products increased with the fermentation time. The water extracts from Kapi products showed strong antioxidative activities against ABTS+ radical, and ACE inhibitory activity but they did not exhibit antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella Typhimurium. Biological activities in Kapi could be developed by fermentation process, enzymatic hydrolysis of proteins and non-enzymatic browning reactions. Kapi could, thus, serve as a potential source of natural bioactive substances.

Functional properties of proteins isolated from phorbol ester-free physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) seed cake

Phorbol ester-free physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) seed cake is a nutritious protein source. Functional properties of the protein isolates obtained from various protein precipitation methods were investigated. Proteins isolated from the seed cake by ammonium sulfate gave the highest yield. The solubility of all proteins increased with increasing pH with their maximum and minimum solubility at pH of 12.0 and 4.0, respectively. The protein prepared by ethanol provided the maximum water holding capacity (3.34 mL water/g protein). The oil binding capacities of all proteins were 1.96–2.03 mL oil/g protein. The protein precipitated by ethanol showed higher emulsion activity and stability than that precipitated by acetone and ammonium sulfate. The protein obtained from ammonium sulfate gave the highest foam capacity, while the protein from acetone had the highest foam stability. Different functional properties of the proteins were achieved by various protein precipitation methods. The protein isolate obtained from each method could serve as a food ingredient applied to food products requiring a specific functional property.