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Human breastmilk is composed of many well researched bioactive components crucial for infant nutrition and priming of the neonatal microbiome and immune system. Understanding these components gives us crucial insight to the health and wellbeing of infants. Research surrounding glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) previously focused on those produced endogenously; however, recent efforts have shifted to understanding GAGs in human breastmilk. The structural complexity of GAGs makes detection and analysis complicated therefore, research is time consuming and limited to highly specialised teams experienced in carbohydrate analysis. In breastmilk, GAGs are present in varying quantities in four forms; chondroitin sulphate, heparin/heparan sulphate, dermatan sulphate and hyaluronic acid, and are hypothesised to behave similar to other bioactive components with suspected roles in pathogen defense and proliferation of beneficial gut bacteria. Chondroitin sulphate and heparin, being the most abundant, are expected to have the most impact on infant health. Their decreasing concentration over lactation further indicates their role and potential importance during early life., Competing Interests: CJS declares performing consultancy for Astarte Medical and receiving lecture honoraria from Nestle Nutrition Institute. He also supervises a BBSRC collaborative training partnership PhD student for which Nestlé are involved (no salary or other personal payment is provided by Nestlé). He has no share options or other conflicts. SA & PMM are employees of Socitee des Produits Nestlé S.A.

Apple bagasse and orange peel were subjected to high-pressure homogenization (HPH), enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) and their combination (HPHE) to study their effect on oligosaccharide production and in vitro fermentability. The application of a cellulase-pectinase mixture on the by-products generated significant quantities of cellobiose (COS-2) and pectin derived oligosaccharides (POS) which were identified as mainly methylated and acetylated oligogalacturonides with DP 2-5 (POS 2-5). When pre-treating the substrates with HPH, the release in orange peel was enhanced significantly leading to a POS content of 44.51 g/100 g peel, whereas oligosaccharide solubilization in apple bagasse was not affected. In vitro fermentation of the hydrolysates containing COS-2 and POS showed faster fermentation rates, between 6 and 10 h, and enhanced gas production, compared to those samples not subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis. Short chain fatty acid (SCFA) production was not impacted by the presence of POS and COS-2 in the induced quantities., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Alina Manthei reports financial support was provided by Nestle Research & Development., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Microalgae are attractive for the food and cosmetic industries because of their nutrient composition. However, the bioaccessibility and extractability of nutrients in microalgae are limited by the rigid and indigestible cell wall. The goal of this study is to explore the cell wall polysaccharides (CWPSs) composition and morphology in heterotrophic Crypthecodinium cohnii and Chlorella vulgaris biomasses during growth. Our results showed that glucose was the major component of CWPSs and exopolysaccharides in C. cohnii . C. vulgaris CWPSs have a similar sugar profile in exponential and stationary phases, essentially composed of rhamnose and galactose. C. vulgaris cell wall thickness increased from 82 nm in the exponential phase to 114 nm in the stationary phase and consisted of two main layers. C. cohnii's cell wall was 133 nm thick and composed of several membranes surrounding thecal plates. Understanding of the microalgae cell wall helps developing a more efficient and targeted biorefinery approach.

Enzyme hydrolysed (hemi-)celluloses from oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFBs) are a source for production of bio-fuels or chemicals. In this study, after either peracetic acid delignification or alkaline extraction, EFB hemicellulose structures were described, aided by xylanase hydrolysis. Delignification of EFB facilitated the hydrolysis of EFB-xylan by a pure endo-β-1,4-xylanase. Up to 91% (w/w) of the non-extracted xylan in the delignified EFB was hydrolysed compared to less than 4% (w/w) of that in untreated EFB. Alkaline extraction of EFB, without prior delignification, yielded only 50% of the xylan. The xylan obtained was hydrolysed only for 40% by the endo-xylanase used. Hence, delignification alone outperformed alkaline extraction as pretreatment for enzymatic fingerprinting of EFB xylans. From the analysis of the oligosaccharide-fingerprint of the delignified endo-xylanase hydrolysed EFB xylan, the structure was proposed as acetylated 4-O-methylglucuronoarabinoxylan., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Thermo-assisted NaOH pretreatment to deconstruct xylan and lignin in sugar cane bagasse (SCB) is poorly understood. Hence, in this research it is was aimed to study the effect of NaOH pretreatment on the insoluble remaining lignin structures. Hereto, SCB milled fibres were pretreated using different dosages of NaOH at different temperatures and residence times. Of untreated SCB about 63% of the lignin compounds were assigned as p-coumarates and ferulates, analysed by pyrolysis-GC/MS as 4-vinyl phenol and 4-vinyl guaiacol, and designated as non-core lignin (NCL) compounds. More severe NaOH pretreatments resulted in lower xylan and lower lignin recoveries in the insoluble residues. Especially, the relative abundance of NCL decreased and this decrease followed a linear trend with the decrease in xylan. Core lignin compounds, analysed as phenol, guaiacol and syringol, accumulated in the residues. The decrease in residual xylan and NCL correlated positively with the enzymatic hydrolysis of the residual glucan., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)