Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a biodegradable polymer, synthesized as carbon and energy reserve by bacteria and archaea. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on PHB production by a rare actinomycete species, Rhodococcus pyridinivorans BSRT1-1. Response surface methodology (RSM) employing central composite design, was applied to enhance PHB production in a flask scale. A maximum yield of 3.6 ± 0.5 g/L in biomass and 43.1 ± 0.5 wt% of dry cell weight (DCW) of PHB were obtained when using RSM optimized medium, which was improved the production of biomass and PHB content by 2.5 and 2.3-fold, respectively. The optimized medium was applied to upscale PHB production in a 10 L stirred-tank bioreactor, maximum biomass of 5.2 ± 0.5 g/L, and PHB content of 46.8 ± 2 wt% DCW were achieved. Furthermore, the FTIR and ¹H NMR results confirmed the polymer as PHB. DSC and TGA analysis results revealed the melting, glass transition, and thermal decomposition temperature of 171.8, 4.03, and 288 °C, respectively. In conclusion, RSM can be a promising technique to improve PHB production by a newly isolated strain of R. pyridinivorans BSRT1-1 and the properties of produced PHB possessed similar properties compared to commercial PHB.

Textile waste usually ends up in landfills and causes environmental pollution. In this study, pretreatment methods for textile recycling, including autoclaving, freezing alkali/urea soaking, and alkaline pretreatment, were applied to textile waste with various cotton/polyester blending ratios. The best condition for enzymatic hydrolysis was a 60/40 textile waste blend of cotton/polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a reusable chemical pretreatment (15% NaOH) at 121 °C for 15 min. The hydrolysis of pretreated textile waste by cellulase was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD). The optimized conditions were 30 FPU/g of enzyme loading and 7% of substrate loading, which resulted in a maximum observed value of hydrolysis yield at 89.7%, corresponding to the predicted value of 87.8% after 96 h of incubation. The findings of this study suggest an optimistic solution for textile waste recycling.

This research investigated the impact of the concentration of pineapple juice on the characteristics of pineapple wine during fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. burgundy. Three ratios of fresh pineapple juice to water were mixed to obtain three treatments, which were T1—2:1, T2—1:1, and T3—1:2. The °Brix and pH of all pineapple juice and water ratios were adjusted to 25 and 4, respectively. The results showed that changes in alcohol, pH, Total Soluble Solids (TSS), Total Titratable Acidity (TAA, as citric acid), and Volatile Acidity (VA, as acetic acid) during the 10-day fermentation among three treatments were significantly different. The highest alcohol content was obtained from the 2:1 with values of 10.71% (v/v). The mixed ratio at 1:1 and 1:2 obtained the alcohol value of 9.61 and 8.35% (v/v), respectively. After ten days of fermentation, TSS, pH values, TAA, and VA were in the range of 9.7–13 °Brix, 3.56–3.82, 0.384–0.448, and 0.0013–0.0016, respectively. However, the appearance, aroma, and taste of all ratios were not significantly different. Sweetness and overall liking, wine with pineapple juice/water ratio at 2:1 had the highest score (p ≤ 0.05). The total antioxidant activities determined by DPPH and total phenolic content were 0.91 mmol/L TE and 365.80 mg/L GAE, respectively, as confirmed by FTIR spectral analyses.

Mushrooms are incredibly valuable macro fungi that are an important and integral part of the ecosystem. In addition to being used as cuisine, mushrooms have been used for medicinal purposes for many centuries. This research applied a process for recovering β-glucan (BG) from the antler-type fruiting body of Ganoderma lucidum as well as tested the biological activities related to cosmeceutical applications. The characterization of complex structure was performed by fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (MNR) spectroscopies. The obtained extract contained 40.57% BG and 7.47% protein, with the detectable bioactivities of anti-tyrosinase and antioxidation. Consequently, it showed the activity that can be used to whiten the skin by reducing or inhibiting the process of skin pigmentation. The BG also showed moderate activities of anti-collagenase, anti-elastase, and anti-hyaluronidase. The test by the HET-CAM confirmed no skin irritation of the complex extract. Based on human peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) test, the BG had no significant inhibiting effect on cell viability. In addition, the obtained BG had functional properties higher than commercially available BG, especially oil-binding capacity. These findings provided new insights into the potential application of G. lucidum BG as a polymeric material in the cosmeceutical industries.

Plum has long been cultivated in northern Thailand and evolved into products having long shelf lives. In this study, plum processing was analyzed by comparing the production of plum wine using three types of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. burgundy, Hanseniaspora thailandica Zal1, and S. cerevisiae Lalvin EC1118. EC1118 exhibited the highest alcohol content (9.31%), similar to that of burgundy (9.21%), and H. thailandica Zal1 had the lowest alcohol content (8.07%) after 14 days of fermentation. Plum wine fermented by S. cerevisiae var. burgundy had the highest total phenolic (TP) content and antioxidant activity of 469.84 ± 6.95 mg GAE/L and 304.36 ± 6.24 µg TE/g, respectively, similar to that fermented by EC1118 (418.27 ± 3.40 mg GAE/L 288.2 ± 7.9 µg TE/g). H. thailandica Zal1 exhibited the least amount of TP content and antioxidant activity; however, the volatility produced by H. thailandica Zal1 resulted in a plum wine with a distinct aroma.

This paper is aimed at investigating the usage of biosynthesized poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P(3-HB)) for a coating on pineapple leaf fiber paper (PLFP). For this purpose, (P(3-HB)) was produced by Rhodococcus pyridinivorans BSRT1-1, a highly potential P(3-HB) producing bacterium, with a weight-average molecular weight (M_w) of 6.07 × 10 ⁻⁵ g/mol. This biosynthesized P(3-HB) at 7.5% (w/v) was then coated on PLFP through the dip-coating technique with chloroform used as a solvent. The respective coated PLFP showed that P(3-HB) could be well coated all over on the PLFP surface as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The brightness and mechanical properties of PLFP could be improved by coating with biosynthesized P(3-HB) in comparison to commercially available P(3-HB) and non-coated PLFP. Furthermore, coating of P(3-HB) significantly increased the water drop penetration time on the surface of PLFP and was similar to that of the commercial P(3-HB) with the same content. The results showed that all the coated PLPF samples can be degraded under the soil burial test conditions. We have demonstrated that the P(3-HB) coated PLFP paper has the ability to prevent water drop penetration and could undergo biodegradation. Taken together, the P(3-HB) coated PLFP can be applied as a promising biodegradable paper packaging.