To reduce the cost of obtaining bacterial cellulose, acidic by-products of the alcohol and dairy industries were used without any pretreatment or addition of other nitrogen sources. Studies have shown that the greatest accumulation of bacterial cellulose (6.19g/L) occurs on wheat thin stillage for 3 days of cultivation under dynamic conditions, which is almost 3 times higher than on standard Hestrin and Schramm medium (2.14g/L). The use of whey as a nutrient medium makes it possible to obtain 5.45g/L bacterial cellulose under similar conditions of cultivation. It is established that the pH of the medium during the growth of Gluconacetobacter sucrofermentans B-11267 depends on the feedstock used and its initial value. By culturing the bacterium on thin stillage and whey, there is a decrease in the acidity of the waste. It is shown that the infrared spectra of bacterial cellulose obtained in a variety of environments have a similar character, but we found differences in the micromorphology and crystallinity of the resulting biopolymer.

Bacterial exopolysaccharides (EPS) are essential natural biopolymers used in different areas including biomedicine, food, cosmetic, petroleum, and pharmaceuticals and also in environmental remediation. The interest in them is primarily due to their unique structure and properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, higher purity, hydrophilic nature, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-cancer, antibacterial, and immune-modulating and prebiotic activities. The present review summarizes the current research progress on bacterial EPSs including their properties, biological functions, and promising applications in the various fields of science, industry, medicine, and technology, as well as characteristics and the isolation sources of EPSs-producing bacterial strains. This review provides an overview of the latest advances in the study of such important industrial exopolysaccharides as xanthan, bacterial cellulose, and levan. Finally, current study limitations and future directions are discussed.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is currently one of the most popular environmentally friendly materials with unique structural and physicochemical properties for obtaining various functional materials for a wide range of applications. In this regard, the literature reporting on bacterial nanocellulose has increased exponentially in the past decade. Currently, extensive investigations aim at promoting the manufacturing of BC-based nanocomposites with other components such as nanoparticles, polymers, and biomolecules, and that will enable to develop of a wide range of materials with advanced and novel functionalities. However, the commercial production of such materials is limited by the high cost and low yield of BC, and the lack of highly efficient industrial production technologies as well. Therefore, the present review aimed at studying the current literature data in the field of highly efficient BC production for the purpose of its further usage to obtain polymer nanocomposites. The review highlights the progress in synthesizing BC-based nanocomposites and their applications in biomedical fields, such as wound healing, drug delivery, tissue engineering. Bacterial nanocellulose-based biosensors and adsorbents were introduced herein.

A design of new nanocomposites of bacterial cellulose (BC) and betulin diphosphate (BDP) pre-impregnated into the surface of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) for the production of wound dressings is proposed. The sizes of crystalline BC and ZnO NPs (5–25%) corresponded to 5–6 nm and 10–18 nm, respectively (powder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD), Fourier-infrared (FTIR), ultraviolet (UV), atomic absorption (AAS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies). The biological activity of the wound dressings “BC-ZnO NPs-BDP” was investigated in rats using a burn wound model. Morpho-histological studies have shown that more intensive healing was observed during treatment with hydrophilic nanocomposites than the oleophilic standard (ZnO NPs-BDP oleogel; p < 0.001). Treatment by both hydrophilic and lipophilic agents led to increases in antioxidant enzyme activity (superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase) in erythrocytes and decreases in the malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration by 7, 10 and 21 days (p < 0.001). The microcirculation index was restored on the 3rd day after burn under treatment with BC-ZnO NPs-BDP wound dressings. The results of effective wound healing with BC-ZnO NPs-BDP nanocomposites can be explained by the synergistic effect of all nanocomposite components, which regulate oxygenation and microcirculation, reducing hypoxia and oxidative stress in a burn wound.

Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) is widely used in biomedical applications. BNC has attracted increasing attention as a novel wound dressing material, but it has no antimicrobial activity. To get over this problem in the present study the BNC was saturated with antibiotic fusidic acid (FA). The subject of the experiment was BNC, produced by bacteria Gluconacetobacter sucrofermentans B-11267. The resulting biocomposites have high antibiotic activity against Staphylococcus aureus and can be used in medicine as a wound dressing. The structure of BNC was analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).