Bagasse of Agave tequilana (BAT) is the residual lignocellulosic waste that remains from tequila production. In this study we characterized the chemical composition of BAT, which was further saccharified and fermented to produce ethanol. BAT was constituted by cellulose (42%), hemicellulose (20%), lignin (15%), and other (23%). Saccharification of BAT was carried out at 147°C with 2% sulfuric acid for 15 min, yielding 25.8 g/l of fermentable sugars, corresponding to 36.1% of saccharificable material (cellulose and hemicellulose contents, w/w). The remaining lignocellulosic material was further hydrolyzed by commercial enzymes, ~8.2% of BAT load was incubated for 72 h at 40°C rendering 41 g/l of fermentable sugars corresponding to 73.6% of the saccharificable material (w/w). Mathematic surface response analysis of the acid and enzymatic BAT hydrolysis was used for process optimization. The results showed a satisfactory correlation (R ² = 0.90) between the obtained and predicted responses. The native yeast Pichia caribbica UM-5 was used to ferment sugar liquors from both acid and enzymatic hydrolysis to ethanol yielding 50 and 87%, respectively. The final optimized process generated 8.99 g ethanol/50 g of BAT, corresponding to an overall 56.75% of theoretical ethanol (w/w). Thus, BAT may be employed as a lignocellulosic raw material for bioethanol production and can contribute to BAT residue elimination from environment.

The antifungal properties of some extracts from Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt., Heliopsis longipes 'A. Gray' Blake., Satureja macrostema Benth. and Tagetes lucida Cav. were analyzed, using the agar disc diffusion method. After 72 h incubation, the plant extracts inhibited the growth of fungi, but the ethyl acetate and methanol-chloroform extracts from A. ludoviciana, H. longipes and T. lucida inhibited all the fungi assayed: Candida albicans, Colletotrichum linde- muthianum, Mucor circinelloides, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Sporothrix schenckii. The spore germination inhibition assay suggested that methanol-chloroform extract from A. ludoviciana was the most active against the fungi tested. The methanol-chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts from A. ludoviciana and T. lucida had pronounced antifungal activity against fungi tested. Compounds found in the leaves methanol-chloroform extracts from A. ludoviciana were analyzed by using GC/MS; the major compounds were: 1-8-cineole, camphor, borneol, cis-verbenol, myrtenol, eugenol, cariophyllene, � -farnesene, spathulenol, derivatives of caryophyllene and derivatives of spathulenol.