Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy 

About: Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Fermentation & Murashige and Skoog medium. It has an ISSN identifier of 0973-8916. Over the lifetime, 486 publications have been published receiving 2372 citations.

Secondary Metabolites of Plants and their Role: Overview

Abstract: Secondary metabolites (SM) are compounds that are not necessary for a cell (organism) to live, but play a role in the interaction of the cell (organism) with its environment. These compounds are often involved in plants protection against biotic or abiotic stresses. Secondary metabolites are from different metabolites families that can be highly inducible in response to stresses. Primary metabolites perform essential metabolic roles by participating in nutrition and reproduction. A few SMs are used as especially chemical such as drugs, flavours, fragrances, insecticides, and dyes and thus have a great economic value. These new technologies will serve to extend and enhance the continued usefulness of the higher plants as renewal sources of chemicals, especially medicinal compounds. A continuation and intensification efforts in this field is expected to lead to successful biotechnological production of specific, valuable and as yet unknown plant chemicals.

Current trends in biotechnological production of xylitol and future prospects

Abstract: This review describes recent research developments on biological conversion of hemicellulosic biomass towards production of xylitol by taking advantage of power of biotechnology. Xylitol is a five-carbon sugar alcohol with established commercial uses in different healthcare sectors and especially as an alternative sweetener for diabetic persons. Xylitol can be synthesized either by chemical hydrogenation of xylose or by fermentation. The precursor xylose is produced from biomass by chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis and can be converted to xylitol primarily by yeast strains which offer the possibilities of economic production by reducing required energy when compared to chemical production. Biomass hydrolysis under an acidic environment is the most commonly used practice and is influenced by various process parameters. Several microbial growth inhibitors are produced during chemical hydrolysis that reduce xylitol production from xylose, a detoxification step is therefore essential. Enzymatic hydrolysis has advantages over chemical conversion although more research is necessary to reduce inhibition due to structural variation from different substrates or plant species. Enzymatic xylitol production is mostly an integral process of microbial species belonging to the Candida genus. Extensive research has been performed to screen for xylitol producing microbial strains as well as to understand microbial metabolism, the xylitol metabolic pathway, cofactor requirements, development of robust recombinant strains, optimization of bioconversion parameters and xylitol production strategies using free and immobilized cells. The imperative role of hydrolysis of xylose containing biomass and subsequent process parameters has major impact on economis of bioconversion. The review identifies ways forward for improved enzymatic xylitol production to compete with current chemical processes.

Limitations in the Use of Fluorescein Diacetate/Propidium Iodide (FDA/PI) and Cell Permeable Nucleic Acid Stains for Viability Measurements of Isolated Islets of Langerhans

Abstract: BACKGROUND: A review of current literature shows that the combined use of the cell permeable esterase-substrate fluorescein diacetate (FDA) and the cell impermeant nucleic acid stain propidium iodide (PI) to be one of the most common fluorescence-based methods to assess the viability of isolated islets of Langerhans, and it is currently used for islet product release prior to transplantation in humans. However, results from this assay do not correlate with islet viability and function or islet transplantation success in animals or humans (Eckhard et al. 2004; Ricordi et al. 2001). This may be in part attributed to considerable differences as well as discrepancies in the use of these reagents on islets. We critically surveyed the literature and evaluated the impact of a number of variables associated with the use of FDA/PI to determine their reliability in assessing islet cell viability. In addition, we evaluated other fluorescent stains, such as SYTO(R)13, SYTO(R)24 and SYBR(R)14 as possible alternatives to FDA. RESULTS: We found that the stability of stains in storage and stock solutions, the number of islets stained, concentration of stains, staining incubation time, the buffer/media used, and the method of examining islets were significant in the final scoring of viability. For archival file photos, the exposure time and camera/software settings can also impact interpretation of viability. Although our results show that FDA does detect intracellular esterase activity and staining with PI does assess cell membrane integrity, the results obtained from using these stains did not correlate directly with expected islet function and viability per transplantation into diabetic athymic nude mice (Papas et al. 2007). In addition, the use of two nucleic acid stains, such as SYTO(R)13 and PI, for live/dead scoring exhibited staining anomalies which limit their accuracy in assessing islet viability. CONCLUSIONS: From a review of the literature and from our observations on the impact of reagent handling and various staining and imaging parameters used to visually evaluate islets, consistent interpretation of islet cell membrane integrity and viability is dependent upon a number of factors. We discuss the utility and limitations of these reagents in evaluating islet cell membrane integrity and viability.

Molecular marker based adulteration detection in traded food and agricultural commodities of plant origin with special reference to spices.

Abstract: Plant foods and agricultural commodities including spices are increasingly subjected to adulteration by design or default, jeopardizing the age old reputation of some of the famous traded commodities and incurring heavy loss to the exchequer The adulterants range from synthetic chemicals and earthy materials to products of plant origin Though conventional analytical tools have good resolution power to detect the synthetic adulterants of food and agricultural commodities, these methods are hardly powerful enough to identify the biological adulterants DNA based methods have application in biological adulterant detection and authentication of a wide range of food and agricultural commodities This review lists some of the adulterants in powdered black pepper, chilli and turmeric and their detection with special reference to selected molecular markers (RAPD and SCAR)

Amazonian Biodiversity: Pigments from Aspergillus and Penicillium-Characterizations, antibacterial activities and their toxicities

Abstract: The Aspergillus and Penicillium culture collection were screened for pigment production. The antimicrobial activity was measured by the agar diffusion methodology. The organic extracts (hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol 95%) were tested for bioautography against yeasts and pathogenic bacteria. The extracts were also tested on Artemia salina toxicity. Cryptococcus laurentii and Mycobacterium smegmatis exhibited higher sensitivity to the pigments as test-microorganism. Pigments from Penicillium simplicissimum DPUA 1379 and Penicillium janczewskii DPUA 304 showed the highest degree of mortality for Artemia salina larvae. The other tested fungal strains of Aspergillus and Penicillium producing pigments, isolated from Amazonia, showed significant antimicrobial activities and total absence of toxicity.