The excessive use and disposal of plastic packaging materials have drawn increasing concerns from the society because of the detrimental effect on environment and ecosystems. As the most widely used fruit packing material, polyethylene (PE) film is not suitable for long-term preservation of some tropical fruits, such as mangos, due to its inferior gas permeability. Cellulose based film can be made from renewable resources and is biodegradable and environmental-friendly, which makes it a promising alternative to PE as a packaging material. In this study, cellulose film synthesized from delignified banana stem fibers via an ionic liquid 1-Allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([AMIm][Cl]) were evaluated as packing material for mangos preservation. The moisture vapor transmission rate and gas transmission rate of the synthesized cellulose film were 1,969.1 g/(m²⋅24 h) and 10,015.4 ml/(m²⋅24 h), respectively, which are significantly higher than those of commercial PE films. The high permeability is beneficial to the release of ethylene so that contribute to extend fruit ripening period. As a result, cellulose film packaging significantly decreased the disease and color indexes of mangos, while prolonged the storage and shelf life of marketable fruits. In addition, the cellulose film was decomposed in soils in 4 weeks, indicating an excellent biodegradability as compared to the PE plastic film.

This study evaluated the physicochemical properties of oils extracted from steam‐exploded camellia seed (Camellia oleifera Abel.). Steam pressure, resident time, fatty acid composition, total phenolics, tocopherol, squalene, and sterol contents, and volatile compounds were determined. ¹H NMR and FTIR spectra were performed for the structure of camellia seed oil. This study has found the highest yield of oil was 86.56% and was obtained when steam explosion pretreatment was at 1.6 MPa 30 s. Oil extracted by steam explosion pretreatment exhibited favorable physicochemical properties and stronger antioxidant activities compared to untreated oil. The compositions of fatty acid were similar between treated and untreated camellia seed oil. According to the ¹H NMR and FTIR analyses, the functional groups of the oils were not significantly affected by the steam explosion pretreatment. Furans such as 2‐pentyl‐furan, 2‐furanmethanol, and 3‐methyl‐furan were produced from stream‐exploded camellia seed. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that steam explosion pretreatment efficiently promoted the release of oil by destroying the cell structure of camellia seed. Therefore, steam explosion can be an effective method for the camellia seed oil extraction.

The use of α-glucosidase inhibitors is considered to be an effective strategy in the treatment of diabetes. Using a bioassay-guided fractionation technique, five Bacillus stearothermophilus α-glucosidase inhibitors were isolated from the flowers of Musa spp. (Baxijiao). Using NMR spectroscopy analysis they were identified as vanillic acid (1), ferulic acid (2), β-sitosterol (3), daucosterol (4) and 9-(4′-hydroxyphenyl)-2-methoxyphenalen-1-one (5). The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) values of compounds 1–5 were 2004.58, 1258.35, 283.67, 247.35 and 3.86 mg/L, respectively. Compared to a known α-glucosidase inhibitor (acarbose, IC₅₀ = 999.31 mg/L), compounds 3, 4 and 5 showed a strong α-glucosidase inhibitory effect. A Lineweaver-Burk plot indicated that compound 5 is a mixed-competitive inhibitor, while compounds 3 and 4 are competitive inhibitors. The inhibition constants (K_i) of compounds 3, 4 and 5 were 20.09, 2.34 and 4.40 mg/L, respectively. Taken together, these data show that the compounds 3, 4 and 5 are potent α-glucosidase inhibitors.

Extraction methods directly affect pectin extraction yield and physicochemical and structural characteristics. The effects of acid extraction (AE), ultrasonic-assisted acid extraction (UA), steam explosion pretreatment combined with acid extraction (SEA) and ultrasonic-assisted SEA (USEA) on the yield, structure, and properties of passion fruit pectin were studied. The pectin yield of UA was 6.5%, equivalent to that of AE at 60 min (5.3%), but the emulsion stability of UA pectin was poor. The pectin obtained by USEA improved emulsion stability. Compared with UA, it had higher protein content (0.62%), rhamnogalacturonan I (18.44%) and lower molecular weight (0.72 × 10⁵ Da). In addition, SEA and USEA had high pectin extraction yields (9.9% and 10.7%) and the pectin obtained from them had lower degrees of esterification (59.3% and 68.5%), but poor thermal stability. The results showed that ultrasonic-assisted steam explosion pretreatment combined with acid extraction is a high-efficiency and high-yield method. This method obtains pectin with good emulsifying stability from passion fruit peel.

Biochar is a low-cost adsorbent for sorptive removal of antibiotics from wastewater, but the adsorption efficiency needs to be improved. In this study, coconut-shell biochar was activated with KOH to improve the adsorption efficiency and magnetically modified with FeCl₃ to enable recycling. The amount of KOH and the concentration of FeCl₃ were optimized to reduce the pollution and production cost. The KOH-activated and FeCl₃-magnetized biochar gave good sulfonamide antibiotic (SA) removal. The maximum adsorption capacities for sulfadiazine, sulfamethazine and sulfamethoxazole were 294.12, 400.00 and 454.55 mg g⁻¹, respectively, i.e., five to seven times higher than those achieved with raw biochar. More than 80% of the adsorption capacity was retained after three consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles. A combination of scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared and Raman spectroscopies, and magnetic hysteresis analysis showed that KOH activation increased the specific surface area, porosity, and number of oxygen-rich functional groups. Iron oxide particles, which were formed by FeCl₃ magnetization, covered the biochar surface. The SAs were adsorbed on the modified biochar via hydrogen bonds between SA molecules and -OH/-COOH groups in the biochar. Investigation of the adsorption kinetics and isotherms showed that the adsorption process follows a pseudo-second-order kinetic model and a monolayer adsorption mechanism. The adsorption capacity at low pH was relatively high because of a combination of π⁺-π electron-donor-acceptor, charge-assisted hydrogen-bonding, electrostatic, and Lewis acid-base interactions, pore filling, van der Waals forces and hydrophobic interactions. The results of this study show that magnetically modified biochar has potential applications as an effective, recyclable adsorbent for antibiotic removal during wastewater treatment.