Barley and yeast β-glucans as new emulsifier agents for the development of aqueous natural antifungal formulations

Producción CientíficaBarley and yeast β-glucans were selected, together with lecithin, to encapsulate resveratrol by emulsification-evaporation method to develop new and safer antifungal formulations. Different emulsification techniques were used: high-shear, high pressure and high pressure and temperature emulsification. Morphology, crystallinity, encapsulation efficiency and in vitro antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea of the different formulations were evaluated. No significant differences between each emulsification procedure in particle size (below 90 nm) and in encapsulation efficiency (70–100%) were observed; only barley β-glucan emulsions showed lower efficiency due to the formation of a gel that retained most of the active compound. A great influence of the emulsification method and the encapsulating material on the crystallinity of the particles was observed. The highest antifungal activity (up to 53% growth inhibition) was obtained by the formulations with yeast β-glucans, indicating an enhanced absorption of encapsulated resveratrol through the cell wall of the fungus at the presence of (1–3, 1–6)-β-glucans.Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA040U16

Efficient production of soy-bean lecithin – pluronic L64® encapsulated quercetin particles in nanometric scale using sfee and pgss drying processes

Quercetin is an antioxidant compound, and it is a highly promising material against a wide variety of diseases, including cancer. A major limitation for the clinical application of quercetin is its low bioavailability, due to its low solubility in water. One way to increase the bioavailability of quercetin is to precipitate it in sub-micrometric scale, encapsulated by a surfactant material, using Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Emulsions (SFEE) and/or Particles from Gas Saturated Solutions (PGSS) drying technology. In this work the efficiency of SFEE- and PGSS drying processes, in producing of quercetin loaded soy-bean lecithin – Pluronic L64® particles in sub-micrometric scale is studied. Robustness study of a batch SFEE process is done, moreover a scaled-up, semi-continuous SFEE process is developed, in order to increase the efficiency of the process, and to decrease the energy consumption. SFEE produced aqueous suspensions are further treated by PGSS drying and by lyophilization, in order to produce solid encapsulated quercetin particles, which are available for long term storage. Encapsulation efficiency and antioxidant activity of with PGSS drying and with lyophilization prepared dried products are measured and compared with each other. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Olive pomace phenolic compounds and extracts can inhibit inflammatory- and oxidative-related diseases of human ocular surface epithelium

Producción CientíficaOxidative- and inflammatory-related ocular surface diseases have high prevalence and are an emerging issue in ophthalmology. Olive pomace (OP) is the olive oil’s industry main by-product, and is potentially environmentally hazardous. Nevertheless, it contains phenolic compounds with important bioactivities, like oleuropein (OL) and hydroxytyrosol (HT). The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of four OP extracts (CONV, OPT(1–3)), pure OL and HT, and mixtures thereof were screened on human corneal (HCE) and conjunctival epithelial (IM-ConjEpi) cells. CONV was conventionally extracted, while OPT(1–3) were produced by pressurized liquid extraction. Thanks to their improved activity, CONV and OPT3 (HT-enriched) were selected for dose-dependent studies. Cells were stimulated with tumor necrosis factor-α or ultraviolet-B radiation, measuring interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-17A as well as interferon γ-induced protein [IP]-10 secretion or intracellular ROS production, respectively. On HCE, both extracts and HT inhibited the secretion of most measured ILs, demonstrating a strong anti-inflammatory effect; while in IM-ConjEpi, all samples decreased IP-10 secretion. Moreover, HT, OL, and both extracts showed strong dose-dependent antioxidant activity in both cell lines. Compared with CONV, OPT3 was active at lower concentrations, demonstrating that intensified extraction techniques are selective towards targeted biomarkers. Hence, a high-value application as potential ocular surface therapy was proposed for the OP valorization.European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) “IT-DED3” (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2017) grant agreement No. 76560

Titanium dioxide nanoparticle coating in fluidized bed via supercritical anti-solvent process (SAS)

A process to coat nanoparticle agglomerates has been developed and its critical operation parameters have been studied in this work. It consists on a fluidized bed where a supercritical anti-solvent process (SAS) takes place. Titanium dioxide (TiO2), used as model nanoparticle, has been coated with a polymer, Pluronic F-127, from an ethanolic solution. As main factors that can affect the coating process, the following process parameters were studied: the ratio between the velocity of carbon dioxide through the bed and the minimum fluidization velocity (umf), with values from 1.5 to 2.5 times the umf; the density of carbon dioxide, varying from 640 kg/m3 to 735 kg/m3 approximately; the flow rate of solution, within an interval between 0.5-2 mL/min; the concentration of the solution, from 0.030 mg/mL to 0.090 mg/mL and the mass ratio polymer-particle, 0.45-1.8 g/g. The process parameters were selected taking into account the values that increased the yield, defined as gram of coating material per gram of introduced polymer amount, and maintained a unimodal particle size distribution (PSD), with low increment in the mean particle size with respect to raw TiO2. All the samples were analyzed by four different methods, which showed the successful results of the experiments. The yield was analyzed gravimetrically, and the PSD was determined by laser diffraction. The presence of polymer on the surface of the nanoparticle agglomerates was verified by FT-IR spectrum and fluorescence microscopy, which also showed the quality and uniformity of the coating. Furthermore, the bulk density of the samples was measured showing a lineal variation with the mass ratio polymer-particle.2017-09-01This work is partially supported by the project Shyman FP7-NMP-2011-LARGE-280983 and the project CTQ2013-44143-R of the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Víctor Martín thanks the University of Valladolid for his doctoral grant. Rut Romero-Díez would like to thanks her agreement with the University of Valladolid. Soraya Rodríguez-Rojo thanks the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and the University of Valladolid for her Juan de la Cierva fellowship (JCI-2012-14992)

Characterization of rosemary essential oil for biodegradable emulsions

The characterization of rosemary essential oil (EO) for its formulation in biodegradable emulsions has been carried out. Firstly, the required HLB (hydrophile–lipophile balance) value of the oil was determined to be 15 based on droplet size analysis and the stability of emulsions with synthetic surfactants. Moreover the emulsion resulted to be stable after 50 days of storage in ambient conditions. Secondly, four biodegradable and non-toxic surfactants derived from starch were tested. The effect of these surfactants was analyzed by measuring interfacial tension between the oil and the aqueous phase.The authors thank the financial support of Junta de Castilla y Leon (Spain) through the project GR11/2008. National Starch Group is acknowledged for supplying the OSAmodified starches and giving permission to publish the results obtained with them. S.Rodríguez-Rojo thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education for her postdoctoral grant. S. Varona thanks the University of Valladolid through the FPI-UVa research program

10th World Congress of Chemical Engineering

Wine lees are water-waste residues generated during maceration and fermentation steps of the vinification process and they constitute a source of high value compounds, such as polyphenols, mainly anthocyanins (AC). The exploitation of these dregs could contribute to the development of new wine-related products and could also lead to a sustainable growth of the wine industry due to the concentration of AC is 10 times higher in wine lees than in grape skins [1]. After the recovery of the polyphenols from wine lees, a wet solid waste remains with poor chemical potential. This residue can be recycled by a hydrolysis step. Supercritical water (SCW) has proved to be a suitable environment-friendly media for biomass hydrolysis due to its unique properties, such as a high diffusivities or low dielectric constant [2]. This hydrolysis produces a liquid product rich in sugars that can be used as feed in a fermentation step afterwards. However, the yield of this last step would be lower with wine lees than with conventional biomasses since its cellulosic fraction only constitutes 18%. The main objective of the hydrolysis of the wine lees residue is to obtain reduced sugars which are essential chemical building blocks in the so-called biorefinery cycle. A continuous pilot plant was used to carry out the hydrolysis of wine lees in SCW. This facility was based on a continuous reactor with instantaneous heating and cooling that allowed precise control of the reaction time and therefore, high recovery of sugars was achieved and avoiding sugar degradation reactions. A wine lees-water suspension (10% w/w) was continuously fed to the reactor using a pump at a flow rate of 1 kg/h and processed under 380-395ºC and 25MPa at different reaction times, between 0.056 and 0.076s. A brown liquid was obtained after the hydrolysis step, rich in hexoses (yield of 50%) such as cellobiose, glucose and fructose. It was also observed that increasing the reaction time and temperature favored the degradation of the recovered sugars into pyruvaldehyde and glycolaldehyde.Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways actions (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IAPP-612208)Junta de Castilla y Leon and FEDER 2014-2020, proyecto VA040U16Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad Spain (CTQ2015-64892-R

Pretreatment Processes of Biomass for Biorefineries: Current Status and Prospects

Producción CientíficaThis article seeks to be a handy document for the academy and the industry to get quickly up to speed on the current status and prospects of biomass pretreatment for biorefineries. It is divided into two biomass sources: vegetal and animal. Vegetal biomass is the material produced by plants on land or in water (algae), consuming sunlight, CO2, water, and soil nutrients. This includes residues or main products from, for example, intensive grass crops, forestry, and industrial and agricultural activities. Animal biomass is the residual biomass generated from the production of food from animals (e.g., manure and whey). This review does not mean to include every technology in the area, but it does evaluate physical pretreatments, microwave-assisted extraction, and water treatments for vegetal biomass. A general review is given for animal biomass based in physical, chemical, and biological pretreatments

Essential oil and hydrophilic antibiotic co-encapsulation in multiple lipid nanoparticles: proof of concept and in vitro activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Producción CientíficaIn the worldwide context of an impending emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria, this research combined the advantages of multiple lipid nanoparticles (MLNs) and the promising therapeutic use of essential oils (EOs) as a strategy to fight the antibiotic resistance of three Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains with different cefepime (FEP) resistance profiles. MLNs were prepared by ultrasonication using glyceryl trioleate (GTO) and glyceryl tristearate (GTS) as a liquid and a solid lipid, respectively. Rosemary EO (REO) was selected as the model EO. REO/FEP-loaded MLNs were characterized by their small size (~110 nm), important encapsulation efficiency, and high physical stability over time (60 days). An assessment of the antimicrobial activity was performed using antimicrobial susceptibility testing assays against selected P. aeruginosa strains. The assays showed a considerable increase in the antibacterial property of REO-loaded MLNs compared with the effect of crude EO, especially against P. aeruginosa ATCC 9027, in which the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value decreased from 80 to 0.6 mg/mL upon encapsulation. Furthermore, the incorporation of FEP in MLNs stabilized the drug without affecting its antipseudomonal activity. Thus, the ability to co-encapsulate an essential oil and a hydrophilic antibiotic into MLN has been successfully proved, opening new possibilities for the treatment of serious antimicrobial infections.Tunisian Ministry of HEducation and Scientific Research and by the Fundación General de la Universidad de Valladolid (PIP 063/147181)Fondo de Innovación, Tecnología y Economía Circular (FITEC) e iNOVA4Health (UIDB/04462/2020

GPE –6th International Congress on Green Process Engineering

Grape stems are a residual woody material from the vinification process. A waste that, if it is not treated in a correctly manner, could represent an environmental problem. Moreover, in the last years, special attention has been paid to this waste due to its high content of polyphenols, mainly stilbenes and flavonoids. Several studies have already revealed the potential and possibilities of these compounds in industries, such as alimentary, cosmetic and pharmaceutic thanks to their antioxidant, antimicrobial and/or anticarcinogenic properties. In this work, the effect of solid-liquid extraction parameters of polyphenols from grape stems have been studied. These parameters were: solid-liquid ratio (RS-L), type of solvent (variation of the percentage of ethanol in the hydroalcoholic mixture) and temperature. Parameter values selected as the best for polyphenol extraction in a conventional solid-liquid extraction were: a RS-L of 0.10 g/mL, a temperature of 75ºC and a hydroalcoholic mixture with a 50% vol. of ethanol. Furthermore, microwaves were applied to grape stems as a pre-treatment prior to the conventional extraction for the first time. In this case the parameters assessed were also solid-liquid ratio, type of solvent and, in addition, the time of the pre-treatment. For this purpose, a statistical surface design was employed to obtain the optimum conditions which maximize the final TPC of the extracts. In a first approach, extracts were characterized in terms of total polyphenol content and total flavonoid content. The main result was that, microwaves make it faster the extraction (until 4 times) but it is not clear their role on the extraction yield. Key-words. Grape stems, stilbenes, flavonoids, microwaveConserjeria de Educación de Castilla y León (España) y FEDER. Proyecto VA040U16Conserjería de Educación de Castilla y León (España). Orden EDU/602/2016Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España). Proyecto CTQ2015-64892-

Production of stabilized quercetin aqueous suspensions bysupercritical fluid extraction of emulsions

Producción CientíficaQuercetin is a flavonoid with highly promising bioactivity against a variety of diseases, due to its strong antioxidant, antiviral and antihistaminic effect, but these applications are limited by the low solubility of quercetin in gastrointestinal fluids and the correspondingly low bioavailability. The objective of this work is to produce encapsulated quercetin particles in sub-micrometric scale, in order to increase their low bioavailability. These particles were produced by extraction of organic solvent from oil in water emulsions by Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Emulsions (SFEE). Due to the rapid extraction of organic solvent by this method, the disperse organic phase becomes rapidly supersaturated, causing the precipitation of quercetin particles in sub-micrometric scale, encapsulated by the surfactant material. Two different biopolymers (Pluronic L64 ® poloxamers and soy bean lecithin) were used as carriers and surfactant materials. In experiments with Pluronic, needle quercetin particles were obtained after SFEE treatment, with particle sizes around 1 μm and poor encapsulation efficiency. In case of soy lecithin, quercetin-loaded multivesicular liposomes were obtained, with a mean particle size around 100 nm and around 70% encapsulation efficiency of quercetin, without presence of segregated quercetin crystalsJunta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA225U14