Search Results (8)

The objective was to characterize the pastures by grazing cycle, as well as to evaluate the performance of buffaloes in intensive rotational grazing in a silvopastoral system in the eastern Amazon supplemented with agro-industry co-products in order to characterize the grazing cycles, the composition of the fractions, and the carcass yield. Fifteen non-castrated, crossbred water buffaloes (Murrah × Mediterranean) were used. All animals used in the study were clinically healthy and weighed approximately 458 kg. The animals were grazed in a single group, and supplementation (1% of live weight—LW/day) was divided into three treatments: control (control—conventional ingredients); Cocos nucifera coconut cake (Cocos nucifera) (coconut cake—70%); and palm kernel cake (Guinean elaeis) (palm kernel cake—70% palm kernel cake). The chemical composition of the forage is different in each part of the plant, with higher protein values in the leaves (11.40%) and higher acid detergent fiber (ADF) values in the stems (50.03%). Among the ingredients of the supplement, corn has the highest percentage of indigestible protein (35.57%), most of the protein in palm kernel cake is B3 (49.11%), and in Coco, B2 (51.52%). Mombasa grass has a higher percentage of B3 and B2 proteins; the indigestible fraction is lower in the leaves (17.16%). The leaf/stem ratio also varied between grazing cycles, being better in the second cycle (2.11%) and with an overall average of 1.71. Supplement consumption varied between cycles and was higher in the control treatment, with an overall mean of 4.74. There was no difference in daily weight gain and carcass yield, with an average of 1 kg/day and 49.23%, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that including supplements based on by-products from the coconut and palm oil agro-industries promotes performance and carcass yields compatible with conventional supplements. Their use reduces production costs, optimizes the utilization of forage mass, enhances the sustainability of the production chain, and, therefore, is recommended. Full article

Bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass is a highly promising alternative to rapidly reduce reliance on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the use of lignocellulosic biomass is limited by the challenges of efficient degradation strategies. Given this need, Bacillus tropicus (B. tropicus) with cellulose degradation ability was isolated and screened from rotten dahlia. The strain efficiently utilized coconut oil cake (COC) to secrete 167.3 U/mL of cellulase activity. Electron microscopy results showed significant changes in the structure and properties of cellulose after treatment with B. tropicus, which increased the surface accessibility and the efficiency of the hydrolysis process. The functional group modification observed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated the successful depolymerization of COC. The X-ray diffraction pattern showed that the crystallinity index increased from 44.8% to 48.2% due to the hydrolysis of the amorphous region in COC. The results of colorimetry also reveal an efficient hydrolysis process. A co-culture of B. tropicus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used to produce ethanol from COC waste, and the maximum ethanol yield was 4.2 g/L. The results of this work show that B. tropicus can be used to prepare biotechnology value-added products such as biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass, suggesting promising utility in biotechnology applications. Full article

The manufacture of vegetal beverages has the drawback of producing large amounts of press cakes that are generally used as feed components. This work had the objective of valorizing the press cakes deriving from almond and coconut drinks production by using ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) to obtain protein ingredients for human use. Starting from coconut and almond press cakes, whose initial protein contents were 19.7% and 18.6%, respectively, the UAE treatment allowed liquid fractions to be obtained that were then freeze-dried: the extraction yields were 24.4 g dry extract/100 g press cake in case of coconut and 49.3 g dry extract/100 g press cake in case of almond. The protein contents of these dried materials were 30.10% and 22.88%, respectively. The quality of the extracted protein ingredients was assessed in term of phytic acid content, protein profile, techno-functional features, and antioxidant properties. The sonication had also a favorable effect on digestibility. Full article

Deoiled coconut cake powder (DCCP) was hydrolyzed to reduce the ratio of insoluble/soluble dietary fiber (RIS) by partially converting insoluble dietary fiber to soluble using Celluclast 1.5 L, a commercial cellulase preparation in citrate buffer medium. Firstly, the influence of citrate buffer amount, enzyme concentration, pH, and retention time on the enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency was investigated. Then, response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the process in which the insoluble and soluble dietary fiber contents were the responses. The results revealed that 10.3 g buffer/g of materials, 3.7 U/g of the materials, and 60 min of retention time were the optimal conditions for the enzymatic hydrolysis to obtain the insoluble and soluble contents of 68.21%db and 8.18%db, respectively. Finally, DCCP or hydrolyzed DCCP (HDCCP) was partially substituted for wheat flour at different replacement ratios in a cookie recipe at 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40%. The cookies with a 10% replacement ratio of hydrolyzed deoiled coconut cake powders had a lower RIS by more than two folds those of DCCP and had the same sensorial score as the control sample. This study proposed that Celluclast 1.5 L effectively reduced RIS by partially converting insoluble to soluble dietary fiber, improving the soluble dietary fiber content in fiber-enriched cookies. Full article

Sophorolipids (SLs) are microbial biosurfactants with an important role in industry and a continuously growing market. This research addresses the use of sustainable resources as feedstock for bioproducts. Winterization oil cake (WOC) and molasses are suitable substrates for SLs via solid-state fermentation (SSF). The model proposed herein was established for annually processing 750 t of WOC and comparing three support materials: wheat straw (WS), rice husk (RH), and coconut fiber (CF). Production capacity ranged 325–414 t of SLs per year. Unit Production Cost was 5.1, 5.7, and 6.9 USD/kg SL for WS, RH, and CF production models, respectively, and was slightly lower with other substrates. Financial parameters were CAPEX 6.7 MM USD and OPEX 1.9 MM USD/y, with a NPV, IRR and payback time of 6.4 MM USD, 31% and 3.2 y, respectively. SLs recovery from the solid matrix was the major contributor to operating costs, while fermentation equipment shaped capital costs. Results show that the physical properties (bulk density, WHC) of substrates and supports define process costs beyond substrate purchase costs and process yields in SSF systems. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to model SLs production via SSF at full scale for the economic valuation of the SSF process. Full article

The optimum formulation for wheat flour (WF)-based biscuits containing the rapeseed press cake (RPC)—the primary by-product of rapeseed oil production rich in phenolic compounds and different types of fats (rapeseed oil, margarine and coconut oil)—was estimated using the central composite design (CCD) with two factors and response surface methodology (RSM). Effects of partial substitution of WF for RPC (0–40 g) in a total flour blend (100 g) and fats with various amounts of saturated fatty acids (SAFA = 2.3–24.9 g) on antioxidant capacity (AC) and sensory characteristics (color, odor, texture, flavor, overall acceptability, and purchase intent scores) of the novel biscuits were investigated. Conventional solid (liquid)–liquid extraction and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) were applied to extract total antioxidants from main ingredients used for the preparation of doughs as well as the baked biscuits. The AC of biscuits and their components were determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The DPPH results were the highest for the RPC flour (DPPH = 15,358–15,630 μmol Trolox (TE)/100 g) and biscuits containing rapeseed oil and 40 g of RPC flour (DPPH = 7395–10,088 μmol TE/100 g). However, these biscuits had lower sensory scores for each attribute and the lowest purchase intent scores. The quadratic response surfaces were drawn from the mathematical models in order to ensure the good quality of the proposed biscuits with RPC. The DPPH results obtained and the mean sensory scores correlate with the predicted values (R² = 0.7751–0.9969). The addition of RPC with high antioxidant potential to biscuits and the replacement of margarine or coconut oil by rapeseed oil interfered with their acceptability. Full article

The commercial COCO simulation program was used to mimic the experimental slow pyrolysis process of five different biomasses based on thermodynamic consideration. The program generated the optimum set of reaction kinetic parameters and reaction stoichiometric numbers that best described the experimental yields of solid, liquid and gas products. It was found that the simulation scheme could predict the product yields over the temperature range from 300 to 800 °C with reasonable accuracy of less than 10% average error. An attempt was made to generalize the biomass pyrolysis behavior by dividing the five biomasses into two groups based on the single-peak and two-peak characteristics of the DTG (derivative thermogravimetry) curves. It was found that this approximate approach was able to predict the product yields reasonably well. The proposed simulation method was extended to the analysis of slow pyrolysis results derived from previous investigations. The results obtained showed that the prediction errors of product yields were relatively large, being 12.3%, 10.6%, and 27.5% for the solid, liquid, and gas products, respectively, possibly caused by differing pyrolysis conditions from those used in the simulation. The prediction of gas product compositions by the simulation program was reasonably satisfactory, but was less accurate for predicting the compositions of liquid products analyzed in forms of hydrocarbons, aromatics and oxygenated fractions. In addition, information on the kinetics of thermal decomposition of biomass in terms of the variation of fractional conversion with time was also derived as a function of temperature and biomass type. Full article

Coconut cake is an abundant and good potential edible protein source. However, until now it has not been extensively used in the food industry. To promote its usage, the characterization, nutrition value and antioxidant activity of coconut cake protein fractions (albumin, globulin, prolamine, glutelin-1 and glutelin-2) were studied. Results revealed that all the albumin, globulin, glutelin-1 and glutelin-2 fractions showed a high nutrition value. The prolamine, glutelin-1 and glutelin-2 all exhibited good radical scavenging activity and reducing power, and the globulin and prolamine showed high ion chelating ability (89.14–80.38%). Moreover, all the fractions except glutelin-2 could effectively protect DNA against oxidative damage. Several peptides containing five to eight amino acids with antioxidant activity were also identified by LC-MS/MS from the globulin and glutelin-2 fractions. The results demonstrated that the coconut cake protein fractions have potential usages in functional foods. Full article