Modification and characterization of phytases for animal feed production

Phytases catalyze the hydrolysis of inorganic phosphate from phytic acid and improve the nutritional quality of phytate rich diet. Monogastric animal such as poultry and fish do not have the ability to completely hydrolyze phytate. As a result, beneficial nutrient necessary for growth becomes unavailable and its elimination through excretions leads to land pollution, eutrophication of ground water and aquatic environment. Besides, it leads to the negative effect on vitamin utilization that lead to the emaciation, retarded growth and reproductive failure in animals. In view of these adverse effects phytases are added in animal feeds. Phytases from microbial sources are commonly used for their commercial exploitations. Waste water bacterium phytase is the subject of interest in this project. In the present study in-silico experiments are used to identify and examine active site of phytase.The factors influencing the ligand binding strength in the active site is analyzed and computational site directed mutagenesis experiments have been carried out to evaluate the effects of mutations on the binding strength. Compare to native enzyme, structural prediction suggest that single mutations at position M216R and E219R add hydrogen bonds surrounding the active site, which increases in the binding of the phytate substrate eventually leading to better degradation. Detailed results from out single and multiple mutation studies provide new direction towards design and development of new phytases with enhanced functional properties

In-silico approach in risk assessment of nutraceutical properties

Dietary supplements, including those containing botanical ingredients and botanical-derived compounds, have been marketed to consumers globally for many decades. However, the legislative framework for such products remains inconsistent across jurisdictions internationally. A common problem, concerning these nutraceutical product, is deficient information and lack of data for assessing the hazards posed to human health. The main objective is to explore the use of in silico tools in a risk assessment context of nutraceutical product, to relate properties of the molecular structure to the toxic effect of the chemical substance, by using principles and methods of computational chemistry. Further consideration of the actual impact of adverse events arising from nutraceutical food supplement usage will be helpful in guiding such issue as potential for misidentification, and adulteration of botanical supplements by pharmacologically active substances

Improvement of phytase properties by rational design intended for animal feed

For application in animal feed, a phytase of interest must have high activity in the broad range prevalent industrial condition and in digestive tract of the animal. The present investigation describes approaches to rationally engineer a phytase with better activity profiles. Computer modelling is used to identify and examine active site of phyFAUIA1 phytase. The factors influencing the ligand binding strength in the active site is analyzed and computational site directed mutagenesis experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of mutations on the binding strength before and after mutation. From the directive results of computational studies, point mutation was introduced by site directed mutagenesis using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Mutagenesis is achieved by two steps PCR procedure. Four primers were designed and synthesized: two primers contain mutation at the point of interest which is complement to each other and the other two primers were designed for unique restriction sites. Several numbers of single, double as well as triple mutations have been introduced in phyFAUIA1 gene, and the mutant enzymes will be characterized and compared to computational results

In silico approach in risk assessment of nutraceutical properties

Dietary supplements, including those containing botanical ingredients and botanical derived compounds, have been marketed to consumers globally for many decades. However, the legislative framework for such products remains inconsistent across jurisdictions internationally. A common problem, concerning these nutraceutical products, is deficient information and lack of data for assessing the hazards posed to human health. The main objective is to explore the use of in silico tools in a risk assessment context of nutraceutical product, to relate properties of the molecular structure to the toxic effect of the chemical substance, by using principles and methods of computational chemistry. Further consideration of the actual impact of adverse events arising from nutraceutical food supplement usage will be helpful in guiding such issue as a potential for misidentification, and adulteration of botanical supplements by pharmacologically active substances

Ethical issues in the halal food supply chain: A systematic bibliometric review

Purpose; Systematic reviews have contributed substantially to the development of knowledge in various academic fields and have helped discover new research potentials in a systematic manner. Specifically, this study aims to conduct a systematic bibliometric review to address ethical issues across the halal food supply chain (HFSC), as well as to identify the ethical challenges that food handlers face in ensuring authenticity, compliance with Shariah law and avoidance of contamination with non-halal ingredients in halal food products. Design/methodology/approach; A bibliometric approach was used to analyse 263 publications from the Scopus database. The present research analysed the documents’ bibliographical data based on publication year, source title, country of origin, institution, authorship, keywords and citation count. The VOSviewer software was applied to perform citation and co-word analysis, as well as to construct bibliometric networks centred on the topic of ethical issues in the HFSC. This bibliometric review provides valuable insights for researchers to identify key publications and comprehend the foundational structure of the subject matter. It also helps guide future research into significant trends and new areas of study. Findings; Citation analysis provides valuable insights into influential publications and the interconnectedness of research on HFSC. A co-word analysis revealed that discussions on ethics and integrity in the HFSC primarily revolved around the concept of halal and its implications, particularly in supply chain management. However, the limited frequency and prominence of these keywords suggests a scarcity of academic discourse on ethical matters in this field. Moreover, ethical considerations not only serve as a critical aspect of ensuring halal integrity but also emerge as a strategic imperative in marketing, brand management and the operation of global businesses. Originality/value; This study addresses the need to examine the knowledge gap in the literature on ethical practices and issues in HFSC. Although there is a significant amount of academic writing in the halal context, there is a scarcity of research that specifically focuses on the ethical aspects of HFSC. This study also offers a framework for investigating the ethical practices and issues in HFSC

Nanoemulsions: factory for food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics

Nanotechnology, particularly nanoemulsions (NEs), have gained increasing interest from researchers throughout the years. The small-sized droplet with a high surface area makes NEs important in many industries. In this review article, the components, properties, formation, and applications are summarized. The advantages and disadvantages are also described in this article. The formation of the nanosized emulsion can be divided into two types: high and low energy methods. In high energy methods, high-pressure homogenization, microfluidization, and ultrasonic emulsification are described thoroughly. Spontaneous emulsification, phase inversion temperature (PIT), phase inversion composition (PIC), and the less known D-phase emulsification (DPE) methods are emphasized in low energy methods. The applications of NEs are described in three main areas which are food, cosmetics, and drug deliver

Development of Porous PCL Based Microcarrier

Polycaprolactone (PCL) has been used for cell cultivation due to its biocompatibility. PCL microcarrier featuring microporous structure were generated in the present study. PCL-based porous microcarrier was fabricated with different parameters by using emulsion evaporation method. From the study, size distribution of the microcarrier and the size of pore generated on microcarrier were affected by most of the parameters tested such as sterring speed, PVA concentration, camphene concentration, temperature and ratio between PCL and solvent.  Optimum pore size was generated at 20% camphene concentration with the average size of 11.74 µm which is conducive for cells to attached and populated well within the pores.  The surface properties of developed porous can be improved for potential application in cell culture research and development, as well as in tissue engineering

Surface modification of polycaprolactone (PCL) microcarrier for performance improvement of human skin fibroblast cell culture

Polycaprolactone (PCL) has many advantages for use in biomedical engineering field. In the present work PCL microcarriers of 150-200 µm were fabricated using oil-in-water (o/w) emulsification coupled with solvent evaporation method. The surface charge of PCL microcarrier was then been improved by using ultraviolet/ozone treatment to introduce oxygen functional group. Immobilisation of gelatin onto PCL microspheres using zero-length crosslinker provides a stable protein-support complex, with no diffusional barrier which is ideal for mass processing. The optimum concentration of carboxyl group (COOH) absorbed on the surface was 1495.9 nmol/g and the amount of gelatin immobilized was 1797.3 µg/g on UV/O3 treated microcarriers as compared to the untreated (320 µg/g) microcarriers. The absorption of functional oxygen groups on the surface and the immobilized gelatin was confirmed with the attenuated total reflectance Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and the enhancement of hydrophilicity of the surface was confirmed using water contact angle measurement which decreased (86.93o – 49.34o) after UV/O3 treatment and subsequently after immobilisation of gelatin. The attachment and growth kinetics for human skin fibroblast cell (HSFC) showed that adhesion occurred much more rapidly for gelatin immobilised surface as compared to untreated PCL and UV/O3 PCL microcarrier

Calcium phosphate /poly (ethylene glycol) bone cement: cell culture performance

Calcium phosphate cement (CPC) for injectable bone cement application has been developed in this study. The CPC was produced using a novel wet chemical precipitation method derived hydroxyapatite (HA) powder. The calcium and phosphorus precursors used to synthesize HA powder were calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2 , and di-ammonium hydrogen phosphate, (NH4 )2HPO4 . The HA powder was mixed with distilled water at certain powder-to-liquid (P/L) ratios. In this study, the P/L ratios were varied at 1.3 and 1.7. PEG was added into CPC with the P/L ratio of 1.3, and it was adjusted at 1 and 5 wt%. The results of this study revealed that higher P/L ratio contributed to the decreased in porosity of CPC. Meanwhile, the addition of PEG increased the porosity of CPC. This is significant for cells adhesion and proliferation, such that cell proliferate faster and better adhesion with the incorporation of PEG into CPC. The cell culture on CPC has proven that the fabricated CPC shows no toxic reaction and cells grow well