Astaxanthin is used extensively in the nutraceutical, aquaculture, and cosmetic industries. The current market necessitates higher astaxanthin production from Phaffia rhodozyma (P. rhodozyma) due to its higher cost compared to chemical synthesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntibiotics have been extensively used as pharmaceuticals for diverse applications. However, their overuse and indiscriminate discharge to water systems have led to increased antibiotic levels in our aquatic environments, which poses risks to human and livestock health. Non-thermal plasma water.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSilver nanoparticles have applications in plasmonics, medicine, catalysis and electronics. We report a simple, cost-effective, facile and reproducible technique to synthesise silver nanoparticles via plasma-induced non-equilibrium liquid chemistry with the absence of a chemical reducing agent. Silver nanoparticles with tuneable sizes from 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, the versatile phototrophic protist has emerged as an interesting candidate for application-driven research and commercialisation, as it is an excellent source of dietary protein, pro(vitamins), lipids, and the β-1,3-glucan paramylon only found in euglenoids. From these, paramylon is already marketed as an immunostimulatory agent in nutraceuticals. Bioproducts from can be produced under various cultivation conditions discussed in this review, and their yields are relatively high when compared with those achieved in microalgal systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Ind Microbiol Biotechnol
June 2019
Enzymatic degradation of the β-1,3-glucan paramylon could enable the production of bioactive compounds for healthcare and renewable substrates for biofuels. However, few enzymes have been found to degrade paramylon efficiently and their enzymatic mechanisms remain poorly understood. Thus, the aim of this work was to find paramylon-degrading enzymes and ways to facilitate their identification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA hydrothermal microwave pretreatment was established to facilitate the enzymatic production of soluble bioactive β-1,3-glucans from the recalcitrant substrate paramylon. The efficacy of this pretreatment was monitored with a newly developed direct Congo Red dye-based assay over a range of temperatures. Microwave pretreatment at 170 °C for 2 min resulted in a significantly enhanced enzymatic hydrolysis of paramylon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are widespread environmental pollutants of considerable risk to human health. The aerobic degradation of PAH via oxygenase reactions has been studied for several decades. In contrast, it was not until very recent that the first key enzyme involved in anaerobic PAH degradation, the dearomatizing 2-naphthoyl-CoA reductase, was isolated and characterized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF