A fermented nutraceutical beverage from quinoa: The traditional grain of Andes

Quinoa is a traditional grain used as a staple food by ancient people of Andean countries and South America, known for its excellent nutritional profile. This pseudo-cereal is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.   However, presence of anti-nutritional factors such as, saponins, tannins, phenols and phytic acid is a serious deterrent to use quinoa in daily diet. This study focus on lactic acid fermentation to answer this riddle. Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from surface of quinoa seeds and characterized. All the isolates (QB-1, QB-2, QB-3, QB-4 and QB-5) were Gram positive, Catalase negative, acid producing and non-endospore forming. Two among the native isolates, QB-1 and QB-2 were selected based on their ability for beverage development. Isolate QB-1 reduced the phenolic compounds (from 0.94 to 0.36 mg/g of GAE) significantly. Isolate QB-2 was found to be more efficient in reduction of phytic acid (from 11.06 to 1.00 mg/g) and tannins (from 4.92 to 2.05mg/g of GAE).  A significant reduction of saponin (from 11.2 to 0.13 mg/g) was recorded by isolate QB-1 and Lactobacillus delbrueckii. The study also revealed that, curd is efficient in reducing anti-nutritional factors such as, phenolic compounds and phytic acid

A fermented nutraceutical beverage from quinoa: The traditional grain of Andes

1040-1047Quinoa is a traditional grain used as staple food by ancient people of Andean countries and South America, known for its excellent nutritional profile. This pseudo-cereal is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. However, presence of anti-nutritional factors such as, saponins, tannins, phenols and phytic acid is a serious deterrent to use quinoa in daily diet. This study focuses on lactic acid fermentation to answer this riddle. Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from the surface of quinoa seeds and characterized. All the isolates (QB-1, QB-2, QB-3, QB-4 and QB-5) were Gram positive, Catalase negative, acid producing and non-endospore forming. Two among the native isolates, QB-1 and QB-2 were selected based on their ability for beverage development. Isolate QB-1 reduced the phenolic compounds (from 0.94 to 0.36 mg/g of GAE) significantly. Isolate QB-2 was found to be more efficient in reduction of phytic acid (from 11.06 to 1.00 mg/g) and tannins (from 4.92 to 2.05 mg/g of GAE). A significant reduction of saponin (from 11.2 to 0.13 mg/g) was recorded by isolate QB-1 and Lactobacillus delbrueckii. The study also revealed that, fermentation with curd is also efficient in reducing antinutritional factors such as, phenolic compounds and phytic acid

Exploring Potent Fungal Isolates from Sanitary Landfill Soil for In Vitro Degradation of Dibutyl Phthalate

Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) is one of the most extensively used plasticizers for providing elasticity to plastics. Being potentially harmful to humans, investigating eco-benign options for its rapid degradation is imperative. Microbe-mediated DBP mineralization is well-recorded, but studies on the pollutant’s fungal catabolism remain scarce. Thus, the present investigation was undertaken to exploit the fungal strains from toxic sanitary landfill soil for the degradation of DBP. The most efficient isolate, SDBP4, identified on a molecular basis as Aspergillus flavus, was able to mineralize 99.34% dibutyl phthalate (100 mg L−1) within 15 days of incubation. It was found that the high production of esterases by the fungal strain was responsible for the degradation. The strain also exhibited the highest biomass (1615.33 mg L−1) and total soluble protein (261.73 µg mL−1) production amongst other isolates. The DBP degradation pathway scheme was elucidated with the help of GC-MS-based characterizations that revealed the formation of intermediate metabolites such as benzyl-butyl phthalate (BBP), dimethyl-phthalate (DMP), di-iso-butyl-phthalate (DIBP) and phthalic acid (PA). This is the first report of DBP mineralization assisted with A. flavus, using it as a sole carbon source. SDBP4 will be further formulated to develop an eco-benign product for the bioremediation of DBP-contaminated toxic sanitary landfill soils

A fermented nutraceutical beverage from quinoa: The traditional grain of Andes

1040-1047Quinoa is a traditional grain used as staple food by ancient people of Andean countries and South America, known for its excellent nutritional profile. This pseudo-cereal is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. However, presence of anti-nutritional factors such as, saponins, tannins, phenols and phytic acid is a serious deterrent to use quinoa in daily diet. This study focuses on lactic acid fermentation to answer this riddle. Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from the surface of quinoa seeds and characterized. All the isolates (QB-1, QB-2, QB-3, QB-4 and QB-5) were Gram positive, Catalase negative, acid producing and non-endospore forming. Two among the native isolates, QB-1 and QB-2 were selected based on their ability for beverage development. Isolate QB-1 reduced the phenolic compounds (from 0.94 to 0.36 mg/g of GAE) significantly. Isolate QB-2 was found to be more efficient in reduction of phytic acid (from 11.06 to 1.00 mg/g) and tannins (from 4.92 to 2.05 mg/g of GAE). A significant reduction of saponin (from 11.2 to 0.13 mg/g) was recorded by isolate QB-1 and Lactobacillus delbrueckii. The study also revealed that, fermentation with curd is also efficient in reducing antinutritional factors such as, phenolic compounds and phytic acid

Exploring Potent Fungal Isolates from Sanitary Landfill Soil for In Vitro Degradation of Dibutyl Phthalate

Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) is one of the most extensively used plasticizers for providing elasticity to plastics. Being potentially harmful to humans, investigating eco-benign options for its rapid degradation is imperative. Microbe-mediated DBP mineralization is well-recorded, but studies on the pollutant’s fungal catabolism remain scarce. Thus, the present investigation was undertaken to exploit the fungal strains from toxic sanitary landfill soil for the degradation of DBP. The most efficient isolate, SDBP4, identified on a molecular basis as Aspergillus flavus, was able to mineralize 99.34% dibutyl phthalate (100 mg L−1) within 15 days of incubation. It was found that the high production of esterases by the fungal strain was responsible for the degradation. The strain also exhibited the highest biomass (1615.33 mg L−1) and total soluble protein (261.73 µg mL−1) production amongst other isolates. The DBP degradation pathway scheme was elucidated with the help of GC-MS-based characterizations that revealed the formation of intermediate metabolites such as benzyl-butyl phthalate (BBP), dimethyl-phthalate (DMP), di-iso-butyl-phthalate (DIBP) and phthalic acid (PA). This is the first report of DBP mineralization assisted with A. flavus, using it as a sole carbon source. SDBP4 will be further formulated to develop an eco-benign product for the bioremediation of DBP-contaminated toxic sanitary landfill soils