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The rice milling process produces rice husk as a by-product. It is one of the most important agricultural leftovers in terms of volume. The data of the sorption isotherm of crystal violet (CV) sorption onto modified charred rice husk, which was plotted using linearized plots of isothermal models were reanalyzed using twenty isothermal models using nonlinear regression. Nineteen models — Henry, Langmuir, Freundlich, Jovanovic, Redlich-Peterson, Sips, Toth, Hill, Khan, BET, Vieth-Sladek, Radke-Prausnitz, Fritz-Schlunder III, Unilan, Baudu, Marczewski-Jaroniec, Fritz-Schluender IV, Weber-van Vliet and Fritz-Schluender V – fitted the data best using non-linear regression. Statistical analysis based on error function analyses such as root-mean-square error (RMSE), adjusted coefficient of determination (adjR2), accuracy factor (AF), bias factor (BF), Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC), corrected AICc (Akaike Information Criterion), and Hannan-Quinn Criterion (HQC) showed that Jovanovic model was the best model. The maximal adsorption capacity in the Jovanovic model, expressed in milligrams per gram (mg/g), is denoted by qmJ while Kj is the Jovanovic constant, and the calculated values were 55.979 mg/L (95% confidence interval; 52.556 to 59.403) and 0.010 (95% confidence interval; 0.008 to 0.012), respectively. The nonlinear regression method provides parameter values within the 95% confidence interval, facilitating improved comparability with prior research.

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action or both. The prevalence of diabetes has been increasing gradually over the last few decades. It has emerged as a global health concern that burdens public health and socioeconomic development. Oxidative stress plays a crucial role in developing diabetic complications affecting the eyes, kidneys, nerves, and heart. There are various established adverse effects of current conventional antidiabetic drugs. Due to this fact, plants have been chosen for developing new drugs as the bioactive compounds in plants have higher antidiabetic and antioxidant properties with low toxicity. Pomegranate peel is an agro-industrial waste that is rich in pectin. Pectin is a natural polysaccharide that has gained importance due to its pharmacological properties. In this study, pectin from pomegranate peel was extracted using ultrasound-assisted extraction to characterize the pectin and to evaluate its antioxidant and antidiabetic activity. Pomegranate peel pectin (PPP) was extracted using citric acid (solid-to-liquid ratio of 1:30 g/mL) at pH 2 under optimized conditions at 75°C for 40 min. A white sponge-like solid was obtained upon freeze-drying with a yield of 18.17. The moisture content of pectin was 18.26 and it was found to be a low-methoxylated pectin with a degree of esterification (DE) of 31.07. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) results showed that pectin from pomegranate peel was quite similar to commercial pectin. The antioxidant activity was evaluated using scavenging assays, 1,1- diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Potential (FRAP) and 2,2²-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) at 1 mg/mL (78.26 with IC50 value of 326.8 ¼g/mL, 79.12 with IC50 value of 83.63 ¼g /mL and 442.7 mg Fe2+/g, respectively). The antidiabetic activity was assessed using an ±-amylase inhibition assay at 1 mg/mL (43.82). These results suggest that

Calcium (Ca) is an essential secondary macronutrient which necessary plant mineral frequently added to fertilizers to promote plant development and resistance to abiotic and biotic stressors. Applying Ca to soils suffices to meet crops’ Ca requirements. Regrettably, its function is obscure. Thus, it is critical to maintain enough nutrient availability through fertilizers or alter the soil environment for oil palm seedlings to grow and thrive. This study investigates the effects of different Ca sources on vegetative growth in oil palm seedlings. This experiment was carried out for nursery evaluation using 5-months old of oil palm seedlings with varying sources of Ca (C1–calcium chloride, CaCl2; C2–calcium sulfate, CaSO4; C3-calcium nitrate, CaNO3; C4–calcium carbonate, CaCO3; C5–calcium oxide, CaO, C6–calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2; and C7–water leach purification and neutralization underflow, NUF-WLP) and grown in a polybag containing beach ridges interspersed with swales (BRIS) soil within six months in Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) nursery, Seksyen 15, Bandar Baru Bangi. Five concentration levels of Ca (T1–200 ppm, T2–250 ppm, T3–300 ppm, T4–1,000 ppm, and T5–1,500 ppm) were used in a completely randomized design (CRD) with ten replications for each. Based on the total biomass of oil palm seedlings at 24 weeks after treatment with various sources of Ca, the result confirmed that C2 oil palm seedlings were more significant in size and denser at the root than other Ca types. The result is an essential indicator that C2 effectively increased the total biomass of oil palm seedlings at 1,000 ppm of Ca (T4); hence it was the best Ca source to improve the growth and development of oil palm seedlings throughout the experimental period at p≤0.05.

This study investigated the growth properties of a molybdenum-reducing bacteria previously isolated for its ability to break down amides. The bacterial growth range is 500–1000 mg/L, 6.5–8.0 pH, and 30–35 °C. The presence of hazardous heavy metals such as mercury, silver, and copper impeded this bacterium's development on acrylamide. The protracted lag phase seen when growing on acrylamide demonstrates the compound's severe growth inhibition. This bacterium has the potential to be an effective acrylamide bioremediation agent due to its greater tolerance for acrylamide than other acrylamide-degrading bacteria identified in the scientific literature. The influence of initial pH on bacterial growth at room temperature indicates that the optimal pH range lies between 6.5 and 8.0. The ideal temperature range for plant growth was between 30 and 35 oC. In a series of experiments utilizing a starting concentration of 1% (w/v) of various organic carbon sources, it was determined that glucose supported the most cellular growth on acrylamide, followed by sucrose, fructose, mannose, and citrate, in descending order of efficiency, whereas mannitol did not support growth. Doses of 300 and 500 mg/L of acrylamide stimulated the most rapid growth expansion, but concentrations of 1500 mg/L and above completely halted development. Copper (Cu), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), and mercury (Hg) were investigated at a concentration of 2 ppm. Mercury hindered growth by 71 percent, copper by 72 percent, and cadmium by 52 percent, according to our findings. There was a linear association between the acrylamide content and the delay before this bacterium began to develop. A lag time of one to three days was found when the acrylamide content grew from 100 to 1,500 mg/L. As quantities of acrylamide increased, so did the maximal growth rate, indicating an overall pattern of increasing toxicity.

As an approach for bioremediation, the decomposition of acrylamide by microorganisms has received gradual but persistent worldwide interest. Prior to this study, a molybdenum-reducing bacteria had been identified and exhibited the ability to breakdown amides. Its key growth parameters on acrylamide were further investigated. A Central Composite Design (CCD) was employed to optimize the two previously identified key factors (incubation time and acrylamide concentration). For the examination of the significant factors or parameters, ANOVA, the perturbation plot, and numerous other diagnostic plots were employed. Using the "Numerical Optimisation" toolbox of Design Expert software, predicted ideal conditions were calculated. There were two ideal conditions investigated. The first was to determine the optimal growth under the employed range of variables, while the second was to forecast the optimal growth at the greatest acceptable acrylamide concentration of 1 g/L. The solution for the first predicted model predicted a maximum growth of 8.96 Log CFU/mL (95 percent confidence interval from 8.19 to 9.73), which was confirmed by experimental results with a growth of 9.88 Log CFU/mL (95 percent confidence interval from 9.79 to 9.97), which was close to the predicted values but significantly greater than the predicted values. The second numerical optimization for maximum growth with the highest acrylamide content. The solution had a predicted maximum growth of 7.81 Log CFU/mL (95 percent C.I. from 7.06 to 8.57) and was experimentally confirmed to have a growth of 8.74 Log CFU/mL (95 percent C.I. from 8.56 to 8.92), with the difference not being statistically significant (p0.05) indicating close agreement between predicted and experimental values. The findings of the RSM exercise demonstrated that growth on acrylamide may be optimized more efficiently with RSM than with OFAT, indicating that RSM is more useful in this regard than OFAT.

Microglial cells are the primary immune cell resident in the brain. Growing evidence indicates that microglial cells play a prominent role in alcohol-induced brain pathologies. However, alcohol-induced effects on microglial cells and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood, and evidence exists to support generation of oxidative stress due to NADPH oxidases (NOX_-mediated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here, we investigated the role of the oxidative stress-sensitive Ca2+-permeable transient receptor potential melastatin-related 2 (TRPM2) channel in ethanol (EtOH)-induced microglial cell death using BV2 microglial cells. Like H2O2, exposure to EtOH induced concentration-dependent cell death, assessed using a propidium iodide assay. H2O2/EtOH-induced cell death was inhibited by treatment with TRPM2 channel inhibitors and also treatment with poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, demonstrating the critical role of PARP and the TRPM2 channel in EtOH-induced cell death. Exposure to EtOH, as expected, led to an increase in ROS production, shown using imaging of 2’,7’-dichlorofluorescein fluorescence. Consistently, EtOH-induced microglial cell death was suppressed by inhibition of NADPH oxidase (NOX) as well as inhibition of protein kinase C. Taken together, our results suggest that exposure to high doses of ethanol can induce microglial cell death via the NOX/ROS/PARP/TRPM2 signaling pathway, providing novel and potentially important insights into alcohol-induced brain pathologies.

There has been an explosion of probiotic incorporated based product. However, many reports indicated that most of the probiotics have failed to survive in high quantity, which has limited their effectiveness in most functional foods. Thus, to overcome this problem, microencapsulation is considered to be a promising process. In this study, Lactococcus lactis Gh1 was encapsulated via spray-drying with gum Arabic together with Synsepalum dulcificum or commonly known as miracle fruit. It was observed that after spray-drying, high viability (~10⁸ CFU/mL) powders containing L. lactis in combination with S. dulcificum were developed, which was then formulated into yogurt. The tolerance of encapsulated bacterial cells in simulated gastric juice at pH 1.5 was tested in an in-vitro model and the result showed that after 2 h, cell viability remained high at 1.11 × 10⁶ CFU/mL. Incubation of encapsulated cells in the presence of 0.6% (w/v) bile salts showed it was able to survive (~10⁴ CFU/mL) after 2 h. Microencapsulated L. lactis retained a higher viability, at ~10⁷ CFU/mL, when incorporated into yogurt compared to non-microencapsulated cells ~10⁵ CFU/mL. The fortification of microencapsulated and non-microencapsulated L. lactis in yogurts influenced the viable cell counts of yogurt starter cultures, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subs. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.

There has been an explosion of probiotic incorporated based product. However, many reports indicated that most of the probiotics have failed to survive in high quantity, which has limited their effectiveness in most functional foods. Thus, to overcome this problem, microencapsulation is considered to be a promising process. In this study, Lactococcus lactis Gh1 was encapsulated via spray-drying with gum Arabic together with Synsepalum dulcificum or commonly known as miracle fruit. It was observed that after spray-drying, high viability (~109 CFU/mL) powders containing L. lactis in combination with S. dulcificum were developed, which was then formulated into yogurt. The tolerance of encapsulated bacterial cells in simulated gastric juice at pH 1.5 was tested in an in-vitro model and the result showed that after 2 h, cell viability remained high at 1.11 × 106 CFU/mL. Incubation of encapsulated cells in the presence of 0.6% (w/v) bile salts showed it was able to survive (~104 CFU/mL) after 2 h. Microencapsulated L. lactis retained a higher viability, at ~107 CFU/mL, when incorporated into yogurt compared to non-microencapsulated cells ~105 CFU/mL. The fortification of microencapsulated and non-microencapsulated L. lactis in yogurts influenced the viable cell counts of yogurt starter cultures, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subs. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.

The plant extracts from various parts of Mimosa pudica exhibits significant antimicrobial activities against a wide range of food borne pathogens. The presence of active constituents can be manipulated for the biopreservative application in food industry. Biotechnological approach for the production of the antimicrobial compounds from M. pudica can be achieved via cell suspension culture and hairy root culture. The bioprocessing aspects of the two systems are similar to microbial biotechnology, except the bioreactor design required. In addition, the downstream processing of the two cell culture systems is also easier compared to the conventional whole plant extraction, as metabolites secretion can be achieved using exudation technique. The selection of solvent during the extraction should be made in regard to the stability of compounds and food safety. This mini review presents an up-to-date picture on the potential use of natural antimicrobial derived from M. pudica from a bioprocessing point of view that could be the key to successful production of plant-based biopreservative in food industry.

Acrylamide is a synthetic monomer that has been classified as toxic and carcinogenic apart from its diverse application in the industry. Its application is in the formation of polyacrylamide. Polyacrylamide usage is diverse and is found as herbicide formulation, as soil treatment agent and in water treatment plants. Deaths and sickness due to the accidental exposure to acrylamide has been reported while chronic toxicity is also a source of problem. This review highlight on the toxic effect of acrylamide to various organism like human, animal and plant. This review also discusses on the potential use of biological technologies to remediate acrylamide pollution in the environment and the degradation pathways these microorganisms utilize to assimilate acrylamide as a nitrogen, carbon or both as carbon and nitrogen sources.

The presence of both heavy metals and organic xenobiotic pollutants in a contaminated site justifies the application of either a multitude of microbial degraders or microorganisms having the capacity to detoxify a number of pollutants at the same time. Molybdenum is an essential heavy metal that is toxic to ruminants at a high level. Ruminants such as cow and goats experience severe hypocuprosis leading to scouring and death at a concentration as low as several parts per million. In this study, a molybdenum-reducing bacterium with amide-degrading capacity has been isolated from contaminated soils. The bacterium, using glucose as the best electron donor reduces molybdenum in the form of sodium molybdate to molybdenum blue. The maximal pH reduction occurs between 6.0 and 6.3, and the bacterium showed an excellent reduction in temperatures between 25 and 40 oC. The reduction was maximal at molybdate concentrations of between 15 and 25 mM. Molybdenum reduction incidentally was inhibited by several toxic heavy metals. Other carbon sources including toxic xenobiotics such as amides were screened for their ability to support molybdate reduction. Of all the amides, only acrylamide can support molybdenum reduction. The other amides; such as acetamide and propionamide can support growth. Analysis using phylogenetic analysis resulted in a tentative identification of the bacterium as Pseudomonas sp. strain 135. This bacterium is essential in remediating sites contaminated with molybdenum, especially in agricultural soil co-contaminated with acrylamide, a known soil stabilizer.

In this work, a temporal monitoring work for heavy metals from an effluent discharge point in the Juru Industrial Estate was carried out using the protease extracted from garlic (Allium sativum) as the principal bioassay system. Casein-Coomassie-dye binding assay method has utilized this purpose. The periodic sampling results for one day of a location in the Juru Industrial Estate showed temporal variation of copper concentration coinciding with garlic protease inhibition with the highest concentrations of copper occurring between 12.00 and 16.00 hours of between 3 and 3.5 mg/L copper. The crude proteases extracted from Allium sativum successfully detect temporal variation of copper form this location. In conclusion, this assay method has the potential to be a rapid, sensitive, and economic inhibitive assay for the large-scale biomonitoring works for the heavy metal copper from this area.

The increase in demand of chicken meat products for human consumption has caused the accumulation of feather waste. In this research, seven local feather degrading bacteria have been isolated from soil and feather waste samples around Selangor and Johor, Malaysia. All the bacteria that obtained from the sampling procedure were then screened by incubating them in basal media that contained feathers as a carbon and nitrogen sources. Among the isolates, isolate E3 has shown the highest keratinolytic activity and feather degradation percentage compared to the others. Isolate E3 was then identified as Bacillus sp. khayat based on its 16s rRNA sequences. This strain produced keratinase optimally at a temperature of between 30 to 370C and at pH 8. The optimal tempature and pH for the bacterial growth were also found at 30 to 370C and at pH7.5 to 9 respectively. Studies using different carbon sources on keratinase production also showed that the addition of skim milk has enhanced enzyme production. The optimum concentration of skim milk for keratinase production was found at 0.2 gL-1. The concentration of feather for optimum keratinase production was determined at 1% (w/v) while for optimum growth at 0.5 to 1.5% (w/v). The bacterium was able to degrade up to 82.43% of feather in seven days with the highest keratinase production observed at the third day of incubation period. The keratinase enzyme from the bacterium was then purified through anion exchange chromatography, using DEAE cellulose as a matrix, and gel filtration chromatography, using Zorbax® column. The molecular weight analysis using SDSPAGE gel revealed that the enzyme has a molecular weight of approximately 31.62 kDa. The optimum temperature and pH of the enzyme activity were 400C and pH 8 respectively. This enzyme can also retain over 80% of its original activity for one hour when preincubated at temperatures of between 20 to 450C and at pH 6.5 to 10. In the protease inhibitor study, the enzyme was greatly in