A critical review on the biotechnological potential of Brewers' waste: Challenges and future alternatives

In order to comply with the stringent discharge guidelines issued by governmental organizations to protect the ecosystem, the substantial amounts of effluent and sturdy wastes produced by the beer brewing process need to be discarded or handled in the most affordable and secure manner. Huge quantities of waste material released with each brew bestow a significant opportunity for the brewing sector to move towards sustainability. The concept of circular economy and the development of technological advancements in brewery waste processing have spurred interest to valorize brewery waste for implementation in various sectors of medical and food science, industrial science, and many more intriguing fields. Biotechnological methods for valorizing brewery wastes are showing a path towards green chemistry and are feasible and advantageous to environment. The study unfolds most recent prospectus for brewery waste usage and discusses major challenges with brewery waste treatment and valorization and offers suggestions for further work.

Multifactorial role of nanoparticles in alleviating environmental stresses for sustainable crop production and protection

In the era of dire environmental fluctuations, plants undergo several stressors during their life span, which severely impact their development and overall growth in negative aspects. Abiotic stress factors, especially moisture stress i.e shortage (drought) or excess (flooding), salinity, temperature divergence (i.e. heat and cold stress), heavy metal toxicity, etc. create osmotic and ionic imbalance inside the plant cells, which ultimately lead to devastating crop yield, sometimes crop failure. Apart from the array of abiotic stresses, various biotic stress caused by pathogens, insects, and nematodes also affect production. Therefore, to combat these major challenges in order to increase production, several novel strategies have been adapted, among which the use of nanoparticles (NPs) i.e. nanotechnology is becoming an emerging tool in various facets of the current agriculture system, nowadays. This present review will elaborately depict the deployment and mechanisms of different NPs to withstand these biotic and abiotic stresses, along with a brief overview and indication of the future research works to be oriented based on the steps provided for future research in advance NPs application through the sustainable way.

Male erectile dysfunction: therapy and drug delivery

Finding an ideal chemical agent or a user-friendly delivery system for the treatment of male erectile dysfunction (MED) has been the goal of several research groups. The most suitable therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED) in man would involve a chemical that acts directly or indirectly on the penis and assures erection without any side effects. The understanding of ED has grown tremendously over the last decade and has been accompanied by an impressive proliferation of new therapies, ranging from traditional therapeutic agents to novel agents and drug delivery systems. Before Viagra, the most effective therapies involved injecting drugs directly into the base of the penis and inserting suppositories into the urethra, but these were too invasive to achieve great popularity. Although ED was not an area of pharmaceutical research that many companies were focused on, the success of Viagra has shown that there is a huge market opportunity for this indication. Financial analysts project a worldwide market of approximately $2 billion for oral ED treatments. This review presents a general overview of the present state as well as the future directions of research to treat MED.

DMP-504 (DuPont Pharmaceuticals Co)

DMP-504 is a novel hydrogel bile acid sequestrant being developed by DuPont for the potential treatment of primary moderate hypercholesterolemia. It is in phase III trials. Equilibrium binding studies coupled with computer simulation of human bile flow predict that DMP-504 could be 3- to 4-fold more potent than cholestyramine in a clinical setting. Preclinical pharmacology studies demonstrate DMP-504 is 6-fold more potent than cholestyramine at decreasing serum cholesterol in hamsters. Clinical studies, at doses ranging from 0.9 to 7.2 g/day, indicate that DMP-504 is well tolerated and decreases LDL-cholesterol by up to 34%. As of June 1997, DuPont was seeking to outlicense DMP-504, which will be marketed in an easy-to-swallow, non-gritty tablet.

Indirect atomic absorption spectrometric determination of sulfate in human blood serum

An indirect method for the determination of sulfate by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) is described. Sulfate forms a stable ion-association complex, [Cu(neocuproine)2]2+(SO4(2-)), in neutral medium, which can be extracted into isobutyl methyl ketone in the presence of a polar medium (methanol) with an efficiency higher than 98.0% and the extract can be analysed directly for copper (and hence indirectly for sulfate) by AAS. Measurement of the copper atomic absorption signal from the organic phase allows the indirect determination of 0.14-1.12 micrograms ml-1 of sulfate, giving a 450-fold increase in sensitivity over the conventional method of precipitation with barium. The limit of detection (3 sigma) is 3.2 ng ml-1 which is better than that of ion chromatography (0.15 micrograms ml-1). Indirect AAS allows the accurate assay of inorganic sulfate anion in biological fluids and tissues. The sulfate concentration determined by the proposed method in human blood serum (n = 6 in each instance) was 35.4-43.3 micrograms ml-1 in normal persons, 50.3-62.5 micrograms ml-1 in jaundice patients and 83.3-155.6 micrograms ml-1 in diabetic patients. A good correlation between measured sulfate and the sulfate added to blood serum was obtained.

Indirect determination of free cyanide in industrial waste effluent by atomic absorption spectrometry

An indirect method is described for the determination of free cyanide in industrial waste effluent samples by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). In an alkaline medium, cyanide forms a stable complex species [Cu(BPTC)(CN)] (BPTC = 2-benzoylpyridine thiosemicarbazone), which can be extracted into a mixture of isobutyl methyl ketone-isopentyl alcohol (7 + 1) with an efficiency of greater than 98.5%. The extract can be analysed directly for copper (and hence indirectly for cyanide) by flame AAS. The calibration graph is linear up to 5.7 micrograms of cyanide per millilitre of solvent mixture and the limit of detection is 4.8 ng ml-1. A large number of foreign ions were found not to interfere with the proposed method.