Protonation and complexation approaches for production of protic eutectic ionic liquids

4-formyl-N,N-dimethylbenzenaminium chloride (FDBC), carboxymethanami-nium chloride (CMAC), 1,3-dihydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)propan-2-aminium chloride (DHPC), (R)-1-carboxy-2-mercaptoethanaminium chloride (CMEC) and 1-methyl-2-oxopyrrolidinium chloride (MOPC) were synthesised and complexed with either urea or oxalic acid at different molar ratios to form protic eutectic ionic liquids (PEILs). The melting point of the PEILs was measured using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Based on the melting point results, MOPC complexed with oxalic acid ([MOPC][O]) at a 1:1 molar ratio and DHPC complexed with urea ([DHPC][U]) at a 1:2 molar ratio were regarded as room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). The solubility study showed that [MOPC][O] was able to fully dissolve soluble starch and rice starch (10 wt%) and partially dissolve sago starch

Palm oil: still the best choice

Looking at the development of the palm oil market today it is conceivable that this oil is going to be the world’s choice. The continuing high demand for it, as seen in the world market today, reflects the importance of palm oil and the public’s awareness of its superiority. Palm oil is extracted from the fruits of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), the golden crop of Malaysia. Oil from this attractive palm has been used as food and energy source for millennia. Palm oil can be processed to produce various type of solid fats and liquid oils of different physical and chemical properties, while this cannot be done with other vegetable oils. Being trans fatty acid free, and possessing significant nutritional and medicinal values, palm oil is chosen for better health. It is packed with nutrients; pro-vitamin A, vitamin E, phytosterol, squalene, coenzyme and lecithin. Probably, the most exciting discovery is that palm oil has shown effective anti cancer activity and is a cholesterol lowering agent. Scientists and nutritionists, backed by extensive published papers agree that tocotrienols, found only in palm oil, are effective anti cancer agents and have been shown to inhibit human breast cancer cells whereby gamma-tocotrienol is 3 times more potent in inhibiting the growth of human breast cancer cultured-cells than Tamoxifen (a drug widely used in the treatment of breast cancer). While palm oil has all these beneficial values, none of the other vegetable oils possess similar qualities. In the current biofuel era, palm oil is touted to be the best choice for biofuel feedstock. Based on its availability and fuel-related properties, today palm oil is the most viable raw material for biodiesel conversion. However, the existing Government policy will restrict future production of palm oil for biodiesel in anticipation of strong world demand for biodiesel raw materials. Since biodiesel production from palm oil will be limited in the future, the Government should look for alternative renewables, probably bioethanol from cassava as a complement to biodiesel, and at the same time explore new technologies particularly to convert plant celluloses or palm biomass to bioethanol. Being a tropical country, Malaysia has an abundance of plants where celluloses can be extracted and used as raw materials for bioethanol

The potentials of novel native fungi in delignification of lignocellulose biomass wastes

The potentials of two new native fungi Trichoderma aureoviride UPM 09 JN811061 and Fusarium equiseti UPM 09 JN811063 isolated from Asian elephant dung for their ability to digest lignin and hemicellulose was exploited using two pretreatment methods, submerged cultivation (SMC) and solid state cultivation (SSC). The pretreatment effect (% loss on lignin and hemicellulose determined after treatment) on rice husk (RH), rubber wood saw dust (RW) and oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) using SMC and SSC by T. aureoviride UPM 09 JN811061 was statistically significantly (P<0.05) higher than by F. equiseti UPM 09 JN811063. However, the result of this study, therefore, showed that the fungi T. aureoviride UPM 09 JN811061 and F. equiseti UPM 09 JN811063 both have great selectivity for lignin with T. aureoviride UPM 09 JN811061 having greater selectivity

Isolation and Characterization of Coprophilous Cellulolytic Fungi from Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) Dung

A lot of work has been done on isolation of cellulolytic fungi from the natural environment, but no such work was done on Asian elephant dung in Malaysia. Fungi that grow on elephant dung which is full of fibres may serve as a source of potential cellulase enzymes. Commercial cellulase enzymes used for the hydrolysis of lignocellulose biomass are not only expensive, but may as well hinder progress in the bioethanol industry. In this study, eight new fungi were isolated from Asian elephant dung sourced from Malaysian forest reserve. The fungi were identified morphologically and by molecular assay. The sequences of the fungi were deposited in the Gen Bank NCBI and were assigned accession numbers. Phylogenetic tree of the fungi was constructed to show similarities of the new fungi to known strains. The fungi were tested for cellulolytic potential using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). Trichoderma aureoviride strain UPM 09 (JN811061) and Fusarium equiseti strain UPM 09 (JN811063) proved to be potential cellulolytic fungi. This study shows that nature harbors the best cellulolytic fungi for biotechnological applications yet to be exploited. Keywords: cellulolytic, fungi, cellulase, lignocelluloses, biomass, Trichoderma aureoviride, Fusarium equiset

Alkaloids and carboxylic acids from Piper nigrum

Detailed chemical studies were carried out on the roots of Piper nigrum. Six alkaloids and four carboxylic acids were isolated and identified from this study. The alkaloids were piperolactam A (1), piperolactam D (2), cepharadione A (3), piperine (4), sylvamide (5) and 2,4-tetradecadienoic acid isobutyl amide (6). The carboxylic acids were tetracosanoic acid, p-hydroxy-m-methoxycinnamate ester (7), 3,4-methylenedioxycinnamic acid (8), 2-butenedioic acid, mono-(2-methylpropyl) ester (9) and 3,4-methylenedioxy benzoic acid (10). Larvicidal assays on Aedes aegypti were carried out on the crude extracts of these plants as well as the pure compounds. The larvae were found to be susceptible to some of these extracts and compounds. This paper reports the isolation and characterization of these compounds as well as bioassay data. This is the first report on the presence of piperolactam A (1), piperolactam D (2) cepharadione A (3) and sylvamide (5) in Piper nigrum

Biological Pretreatment of Rubberwood with Ceriporiopsis subvermispora for Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Bioethanol Production

Rubberwood (Hevea brasiliensis), a potential raw material for bioethanol production due to its high cellulose content, was used as a novel feedstock for enzymatic hydrolysis and bioethanol production using biological pretreatment. To improve ethanol production, rubberwood was pretreated with white rot fungus Ceriporiopsis subvermispora to increase fermentation efficiency. The effects of particle size of rubberwood (1 mm, 0.5 mm, and 0.25 mm) and pretreatment time on the biological pretreatment were first determined by chemical analysis and X-ray diffraction and their best condition obtained with 1mm particle size and 90 days pretreatment. Further morphological study on rubberwood with 1mm particle size pretreated by fungus was performed by FTIR spectra analysis and SEM observation and the result indicated the ability of this fungus for pretreatment. A study on enzymatic hydrolysis resulted in an increased sugar yield of 27.67% as compared with untreated rubberwood (2.88%). The maximum ethanol concentration and yield were 17.9 g/L and 53% yield, respectively, after 120 hours. The results obtained demonstrate that rubberwood pretreated by C. subvermispora can be used as an alternative material for the enzymatic hydrolysis and bioethanol production

Malaysian red palm oil in a surfactant association structure

The interlayer spacings of a lamellar liquid-crystalline structure, before and after incorporation of red palm oil, were determined by means of small-angle X-ray diffraction. The results agreed with earlier investigations on refined, bleached, and deodorized palm olein for the anionic host. The cationic host, after addition of red palm oil, showed two features of interest. First, the results showed a drastic decrease of its extrapolated interlayer spacing, and, second, the slope exhibited a value twice that of the host value

Combined effect of nitric acid and sodium hydroxide pretreatments on enzymatic saccharification of rubber wood (Heavea brasiliensis)

A combinatorial nitric acid and sodium hydroxide pretreatment for improving the enzymatic saccharification of rubber wood was proposed in this study. Effects of pretreatment time, temperature as well as nitric acid and sodium hydroxide concentrations on glucose yield were investigated. Rubber wood sawdust was sequentially pretreated with dilute nitric acid and dilute sodium hydroxide, respectively. The pretreated samples were hydrolyzed using cellulase together with β-glucosidase at enzyme loadings of 25 FPU and 60 CBUg/cellulose, respectively. Results from the enzymatic hydrolysis experiments showed that a glucose yield of 95% was achieved (within 24 h of hydrolysis) with rubber wood sample pretreated using 6% HNO3, at 100°C for 60 min followed by 1%NaOH at 90°C for 30 min. Comparison of these results with those reported in literature demonstrated that combining nitric acid and sodium hydroxide pretreatments resulted in higher rate of hydrolysis and better cellulose digestibility