Remazol brilliant blue reactive dye decolouration and mustard straw utilization by white rot fungi

144-148The remazol brilliant blue reactive (RBBR) dye decolouration and mustard (Brassica campestris) straw (MuS) nutrient utilization by various white rot fungi, viz. Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Ganoderma applanatum, G. lucidum, Pleurotus ostreatus, P. sajorcaju, Polyporus arcularius, P. versicolor, P. adustus, P. sanguineus-970, P. sanguineus-154, Trametes hirsuta, Parva mentocela and Longyites strata, were studied. The visual detection of decolouration was found complementary to its quantitative estimation. P. sanguineus-970 showed the highest RBBR dye decolouration in agar as well as in broth medium (74%). The dry matter utilization of MuS was low (20-27%) by all the white rot fungi. However, they preferentially degraded lignin (18-42%) in comparison to cellulose (0-12%). The highest lignin utilization was shown by P. chrysosporium. Whereas, P. sanguineus-154 showed both higher RBBR dye decolouration (66.5%) and lignin degradation (33%) and could be used for modification of MuS as animal feed

A theoretical and experimental study on L-tyrosine and citrate mediated sustainable production of near infrared absorbing twisted gold nanorods

Anisotropic gold nanoparticles displaying plasmon band in the near infrared region can play a crucial role in cancer therapy particularly with techniques such as photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT). Herein, we report an efficient, sustainable, one pot protocol for the fabrication of an unusual gold anisotropic shape, which we have named as twisted gold nanorods. These particles, though having dimensions in the nanoscale regime comparable to those of gold nanorods, display a continuous flat plasmon band like that of 2-D gold nanowire networks, extended up to the NIR-III (SWIR) range. The proposed strategy is simple and does not require any seed mediation, heating or potential toxic templates or organic solvents. Our process is based on the slow reduction of gold salt in presence of two mild reducing agents viz. L-tyrosine (an amino acid) and trisodium citrate. We observed that when both molecules are present together in particular concentrations, they direct the growth in form of twisted gold nanorods. The mechanism of growth has been described by a Diffusion Limited Aggregation numerical scheme, where it was assumed that both L-tyrosine and the gold ions in solution undergo a stochastic Brownian motion. The predictions of the model matched with the experiments with a good accuracy, indicating that the initial hypothesis is correct. The final structure has been thoroughly characterized in terms of morphology, while SERS and cytotoxic activity have also been demonstrated

Effect of sodium hydroxide and alkaline hydrogen peroxide treatment on physical and chemical characteristics and IVOMD of mustard straw

Abstract Mustard straw (MS) was soaked for 6 h in the solutions containing 0% (S 0 ), 1% (S 1 ) or 2% (S 2 ) sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 0% (H 0 ) or 1.5% (H 1 ) hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) following a 3Â2 factorial design. The pH of the untreated MS (near neutral) was increased to more than 10 after treatment with NaOH (S 1 H 0 and S 2 H 0 ) or alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP; S 1 H 1 and S 2 H 1 ). The treatment effect on tenacity was not signi®cant. The NDF and ADF contents of MS increased signi®cantly (p<0.01) in the treatment S 0 H 1 , whereas these decreased signi®cantly (p<0.01) in the treatments S 2 H 0 and S 2 H 1 . However, the change in NDF and ADF was not signi®cant in S 0 H 0 , S 1 H 0 and S 1 H 1 treatments. The content of both NDF and ADF decreased linearly (p<0.01) with increasing level of NaOH in the soaking medium. The effect of various treatments on cellulose content was almost similar to that of NDF and ADF. The acid detergent lignin content of MS increased signi®cantly (p<0.01) in case of S 1 H 0 , S 0 H 1 and S 1 H 1 but the differences were not signi®cant among UMS, S 0 H 0 , S 2 H 0 and S 2 H 1 . The IVOMD content of untreated MS was 162 g kg À1 DM and it increased signi®cantly (p<0.01) when straw was soaked in S 1 H 0 , S 2 H 0 , S 1 H 1 and S 2 H 1 , whereas it reduced slightly due to either water (S 0 H 0 ) or H 2 O 2 (S 0 H 1 ) treatment. With the increasing level of NaOH, the IVOMD improved signi®cantly (p<0.01). It is concluded that the cell wall constituents and IVOMD of MS were modi®ed by NaOH with or without H 2 O 2 in a way that in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) of treated MS was 82±112% units higher than untreated MS. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved