Utilization of Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) Peel Waste and Blood Clam Shell Waste (Anadara granosa) as Raw Materials for Glycerol-Plasticized Degradable Bioplastic Production

Nowadays, the world is in dire need of solutions to tackle the ever-growing plastic Nowadays, the world needs solutions to manage the ever-growing plastic waste problem. Plastics cannot decay easily in the natural environment. Instead, it took conventional plastics such as PET – about 23 to 48 years to decay naturally in the environment. Therefore, it is urgently needed to find an alternative to these types of plastics, namely degradable plastics. One type of bioplastics, called starch-based bioplastic can be made using starchy materials from Breadfruit peel. This is in combination with Blood Clam shell–derived chitin nanowhiskers as a reinforcer and glycerol as the plasticizer. In this research, bioplastic is synthesized using the proposed formulation consisting of starch extracted from Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) peel waste, substituted by reinforcing agent chitin nanowhisker made from Blood Clam (Anadara granosa) shell waste, and addition of glycerol as the plasticizer. Further, bioplastic was tested according to general standard plastic tests including Tensile Strength, Water Uptake, and Soil Burial test. Chitin nano whisker was made using the Acid Hydrolysis method in which HCl 0,1 M was used to hydrolyze blood clam shell chitin waste, while Breadfruit peel starch was extracted using the centrifugation method. Soil burial test results showed that in less than 15 days, the bioplastic was completely decomposed. Water uptake test results showed that the bioplastic made from breadfruit waste starch + Blood Cam-derived nano whisker chitin can achieve water uptake numbers as high as 94,077 %, this was lower than the control sample which was made without the addition of Blood Cam-derived nano whisker chitin. But this test result was still higher compared to conventional plastics such as clip plastic, having a water uptake percentage of 0,758 %, and to supermarket plastic bags having a water uptake percentage of zero. Tensile strength test showed that the bioplastic made from breadfruit waste starch + Blood Cam-derived nano whisker chitin was two times stronger than bioplastic made without the addition of Blood Clam derived nano whisker chitin and was also stronger than conventional plastics

In-silico screening of inhibitor on protein epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)

The screening process to detect early-stage lung cancer is injurious to a patient's survival. Fortunately, there are natural compounds that have been acknowledged to possess anticancer properties, work as the protein binding inhibitors of lung cancer promotors: EGF and EGFR. The study aims to identify inhibitors of EGFR protein binding. Assessments were accomplished based on several parameters related to EGFR proteins, such as pathways, protein activity, conformational changes, and numerous information using the STRING database and KEGG pathway database. Ten inhibitor compounds that expressed highest activity were selected for further analysis were: (20R,22R)-5beta,6beta-Epoxy-4beta,12beta,20-trihy-droxy-1-oxowith-2-en-24-enolide, irinotecan, flavopyridol, teniposide, exatecan, daphnoretin, indirubin, topitecan, wentilactone, and evidiamine. The native ligand Lapatinib was used as positive control in this analysis. The analysis was accomplished by molecular docking using Vina 4 in the PyRx software. Interactions between the ligands and residues were investigated using LIGPLOT+ 2.2. The In-silico analysis of the ten candidate compounds revealed that (20R, 22R)-5beta, 6beta-Epoxy-4beta, 12beta, 20-trihydroxy-1-oxowith-2-en-24-enolide expressed the lowest binding energy value, which is -10.4 kcal/mol, indicated the closest binding energy value to Lapatinib as the control. Based on the interaction of amino acids, (20R,22R)-5beta, 6beta-Epoxy-4beta, 12beta, 20-trihydroxy-1-oxowith-2-en-24-enolide has excellent potential to be utilized as next inhibitor com- pound candidates for EGFR protein, because it binds to the Lys745 residue. It mirrors the positive control and has a binding energy on the range of the specified acceptable parameters