OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to optimize the yield of pectin extracted from sweet potato residue and investigate its emulsifying properties.
METHODS: Response surface methodology (RSM) has been utilized to investigate the pectin extracted from sweet potato peels using citric acid as the extracting solvent. Investigation of the effect of different extraction conditions namely temperature (°C), time (min) and solution pH on pectin yield (%) were conducted. A Box-Benhken design with three levels of variation was used to optimize the extraction conditions.
RESULTS: The optimal conditions determined were temperature 76°C, time 64 min and pH 1.2 with 65.2% yield of pectin. The degree of esterification (DE) of the sweet potato pectin was determined using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. The pectin is high-methoxyl pectin with DE of 58.5%. Emulsifying properties of sweet potato pectin were investigated by measuring the zeta-potential, particle size and creaming index with addition of 0.4 and 1.0 wt % pectin to the emulsion.
CONCLUSION: Extraction using citric acid could improve the pectin yield. Improved emulsion stability was observed with the addition of the sweet potato pectin.
OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to explore oleaginous yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica isolated from soil and optimization of culture conditions and medium components to obtained better quality microbial oil for biodiesel production.
METHODS: Fifty yeast strains were isolated from soil from different regions of Lahore and eleven of them were selected for oil production. The isolated yeast colonies were screened to further check their lipid producing capabilities by the qualitative analysis. Five yeast strains were designated as oleaginous because they produced more than 16% of oil based on their biomass. To estimate the total lipid content of yeast cells, the extraction of lipids was done by performing the procedure proposed by Bligh and Dyer. The transesterification of yeast oils was performed by using different methods. There were three different strategies customized to transesterifying microbial oil using base catalyzed transesterification, acid catalyzed transesterification and enzyme-based transesterification. After completion of transesterification, sample was used for fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were analyzed by gas-chromatograph with ionization detector type MS.
RESULTS: The isolate IIB-10 identified as Yarrowia lipolytica produced maximum amount of lipids i.e. 22.8%. More amount of biomass was obtained when cane molasses was utilized as carbon source where it produced 29.4 g/L of biomass while sucrose and lactose were not utilized by IIB-10 and no biomass was obtained. Similarly, meat extracts showed best results when it was used as nitrogen source because it resulted in 35.8 g/L biomass of Yarrowia lipolytica IIB-10. The culturing conditions like size of inoculum, effect of pH and time of incubation were also studied. The 10% of inoculum size produced 25.4 g/L biomass at 120 h incubation time, while the pH 7 was the optimum pH at which 24.8 g/L biomass was produced by Yarrowia lipolytica IIB-10. GC-MS analysis showed that biodiesel produced by transesterification contained similar fatty acids as found in vegetable oil for this reason it is widely accepted feedstock for biodiesel production.
CONCLUSION: The analysis of fatty acids methyl esters showed the similar composition of microbial oil as in vegetable oils and high amount of methyl esters were obtained after transesterification. Therefore, potentially oleaginous yeast could be used to generate a large amount of lipids for biodiesel production that will be the better substitute of petroleum-based diesel and will also control the environmental pollution.