Purwandari, F. A., Sanjaya, A. P., Millati, R., Cahyanto, M. N., Horvath, I. S., Niklasson, C., Taherzadeh, M. J.

Pretreatment of OPEFB (oil palm empty fruit bunch) by NMMO (N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide) on its subsequent digestions was investigated. The pretreatments were carried out at 90 and 120°C for 1, 3, and 5h in three different modes of dissolution (by 85% NMMO solution), ballooning (79% NMMO solution), and swelling (73% NMMO solution). The total solid recovery after the pretreatment was 89-94%. The pretreatment process did not have a major impact on the composition of OPEFB, other than a reduction of ash from 5.4% up to 1.3%. The best improvement in biogas production was achieved by a dissolution mode pretreatment of OPEFB, using conditions of 85% NMMO, 3h, and 120°C. It resulted in 0.408Nm³/kg VS methane yield and 0.032Nm³CH₄/kg VS/day initial methane production rate, which correspond in improving by 48% and 167% compared to the untreated OPEFB, respectively. read more

Sardjono, Yamashita, A., Yoshizawa, T., Aiura, Y., Sanchez, P.C., Dizon, E. I., Arim, R. H.

Corn samples collected from the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia were surveyed for the natural occurrence of Fusarium mycotoxins (fumonisins, trichothecenes, and zearalenone) and aflatoxins. Fumonisins B₁ and B₂ were found in over 50% of corn samples in individual countries, and their co-occurrences with aflatoxins at the incidence of 48% were noted. In addition to these mycotoxins, a trichothecene, nivalenol, and an estrogen, zearalenone, both mycotoxins of Fusarium species, were detected in these Southeast Asian samples. This is the first report on the simultaneous occurrence of two carcinogenic mycotoxins, fumonisins and aflatoxins, together with Fusarium mycotoxins (nivalenol and zearalenone) in corn from Asian tropics. read more

Mulyadi, A. N., Baldermann, S., Yang, Z., Murata, A., Fleischmann, P., Winterhalter, P., Knight, M., Finn, T. M., Watanabe, N.

Centrifugal precipitation chromatography and a high-speed counter-current chromatography system equipped with a spiral tubing support rotor (spHSCCC) were successfully applied for the identification and isolation of carotenoid cleavage-like enzymes from Enteromorpha compressa (L.) Nees. This is the first study separating active enzymes from a complex natural matrix by spHSCCC. The target enzymes were identified after fractionation of the proteins in an acetone Tris-buffer gradient by centrifugal precipitation chromatography. Also, an aqueous two-phase solvent system consisting of PEG 1000 and mono- and dibasic potassium phosphate was used for the isolation of the enzymes by spHSCCC. The purified fractions contained two proteins of 65 and 72kDa, respectively. The enzymes could cleave β-carotene and β-apo-8′-carotenal to produce β-ionone. read more

Pranoto, Y., Rakshit, S. K., Salokhe, V. M.

Antimicrobial effect of chitosan edible film incorporating garlic oil (GO) was compared with conventional food preservative potassium sorbate (PS) and bacteriocin nisin (N) at various concentrations. This activity was tested against food pathogenic bacteria namely Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes and Bacillus cereus. Mechanical and physical properties were characterized and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) was also performed to determine functional groups interactions between the matrix and added agent. Incorporation of GO up to levels at least 100 μl/g, PS at 100 mg/g or N at 51,000 IU/g of chitosan were found to have antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, and B. cereus. At these levels, the films were physically acceptable in term of appearance, mechanical and physical properties. GO components did not affect the physical and mechanical properties of chitosan films as it did not have any interaction with the functional groups of chitosan as measured by FTIR. read more

Raharjo, S., Sofos, J. N.

The purpose of this review is to summarize concerns regarding the formation and quantification of malonaldehyde as a product of lipid peroxidation in muscle tissues. The spectrophotometric thiobarbituric acid (TBA) method is the most frequently used test for malonaldehyde quantification, especially in muscle tissues, as a marker of lipid peroxidation. However, the TBA method has been criticized as lacking specificity and adequate sensitivity towards malonaldehyde. High performance liquid and gas chromatographic methods offer better specificity and sensitivity for malonaldehyde detection. The TBA method, however, may be preferred over the chromatographic method because of its simplicity, especially when a large number of samples need to be analyzed in a short period of time on a daily basis. In addition, the TBA method has been correlated with other objective and subjective methods of measuring lipid peroxidation and its specificity can be improved with the use of a solid phase extraction C₁₈ cartridge. read more

Guritno, A. D., Ushada, M., Mulyati, G. T., Murase, H.

Worker capacity is influenced by various factors of standard time, physical, mood and environment. The Capacity Constrained Worker (CCW) can be described as a worker capacity is close or equal with incoming material so that the fluctuation of incoming material flows possible to shift the CCW into a bottleneck condition of process. Recognizing CCW and bottleneck is essential to maintain the planned product flow in each work station. The objective of the research is to identify and control CCW and bottleneck. The case study of this research is in half-fermented ̀Tempè industry. CCW and bottleneck were identified using 4 parameters of standard time, profile of mood status, heart rate and environmental condition. The research results indicated that the CCW was identified on worker of peeling station while bottleneck was identified on the worker of threshing station. The arrival rate of each station inside the Bioproduction system was balanced using the lowest service rate. A buffer time is derived by deviation between service rate of worker in CCW and bottleneck and balanced arrival rate using Drum-Buffer-Rope algorithm. Buffer time was added before threshing and peeling station. read more

Ushada, M., Murase, H.

A greening material has different attributes for bio-physical, market and commercial functions. In designing a material, a plant factory has to select from a large set of initial design attributes. This paper presents swarm modelling (SM) to select the desired design attributes of customisable greening material. SM was developed by hybridising desirability model and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Design attributes were selected by predicting its consumer importance in a desirability model. Subsequently, PSO was used to optimise the model based on mentality constraints. SM was demonstrated on a case study of Sunagoke moss greening material (Rhacomitrium japonicum). The materials were classified into wet and semi-dry moss. The importance of a set of 24 attributes was predicted based on 15 mentality constraints. Constraints here included consumer prior knowledge, familiarity, agreement to material function and interest. Some of the bio-physical attributes were not selected due to the limited mentality. Four attributes were found to be the desired selections for optimal design of wet moss. For the semi-dry moss, there were 14. These attributes were validated successfully using a different consumer segment with minimum error. The desired attributes for the optimal design can be selected using consumer importance and its mentality constraints. read more

Setyaningsih, W., Saputro, I. E., Palma, M., Barroso, C. G.

A new microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) method has been investigated for the extraction of phenolic compounds from rice grains. The experimental conditions studied included temperature (125-175 °C), microwave power (500-1000 W), time (5-15 min), solvent (10-90% EtOAc in MeOH) and solvent-to-sample ratio (10:1 to 20:1). The extraction variables were optimised by the response surface methodology. Extraction temperature and solvent were found to have a highly significant effect on the response value (p < 0.0005) and the extraction time also had a significant effect (p < 0.05). The optimised MAE conditions were as follows: extraction temperature 185 °C, microwave power 1000 W, extraction time 20 min, solvent 100% MeOH, and solvent-to-sample ratio 10:1. The developed method had a high precision (in terms of CV: 5.3% for repeatability and 5.5% for intermediate precision). Finally, the new method was applied to real samples in order to investigate the presence of phenolic compounds in a wide variety of rice grains. read more

Millati, R., Isroi, Ishola, M. M., Syamsiah, S., Cahyanto, M. N., Niklasson, C., Taherzadeh, M. J. 

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) was pretreated using white-rot fungus Pleurotus floridanus, phosphoric acid or their combination, and the results were evaluated based on the biomass components, and its structural and morphological changes. The carbohydrate losses after fungal, phosphoric acid, and fungal followed by phosphoric acid pretreatments were 7.89%, 35.65%, and 33.77%, respectively. The pretreatments changed the hydrogen bonds of cellulose and linkages between lignin and carbohydrate, which is associated with crystallinity of cellulose of OPEFB. Lateral Order Index (LOI) of OPEFB with no pretreatment, with fungal, phosphoric acid, and fungal followed by phosphoric acid pretreatments were 2.77, 1.42, 0.67, and 0.60, respectively. Phosphoric acid pretreatment showed morphological changes of OPEFB, indicated by the damage of fibre structure into smaller particle size. The fungal-, phosphoric acid-, and fungal followed by phosphoric acid pretreatments have improved the digestibility of OPEFB’s cellulose by 4, 6.3, and 7.4 folds, respectively. read more

Cahyanto, M. N., Isroi, Millati, R.,  Syamsiah, S., Niklasson, C., Lundquist, K., Taherzadeh, M. J.

Lignocellulosic carbohydrates, i.e. cellulose and hemicellulose, have abundant potential as feedstock for production of biofuels and chemicals. However, these carbohydrates are generally infiltrated by lignin. Breakdown of the lignin barrier will alter lignocelluloses structures and make the carbohydrates accessible for more efficient bioconversion. White-rot fungi produce ligninolytic enzymes (lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase, and laccase) and efficiently mineralise lignin into CO ₂ and H ₂O. Biological pretreatment of lignocelluloses using white-rot fungi has been used for decades for ruminant feed, enzymatic hydrolysis, and biopulping. Application of white-rot fungi capabilities can offer environmentally friendly processes for utilising lignocelluloses over physical or chemical pretreatment. This paper reviews white-rot fungi, ligninolytic enzymes, the effect of biological pretreatment on biomass characteristics, and factors affecting biological pretreatment. Application of biological pretreatment for enzymatic hydrolysis, biofuels (bioethanol, biogas and pyrolysis), biopulping, biobleaching, animal feed, and enzymes production are also discussed. read more