Encapsulation of β-Glucosidase within PVA Fibers by CCD-RSM-Guided Coelectrospinning: A Novel Approach for Specific Mogroside Sweetener Production

Polymeric Nanofibers via Green Electrospinning for Safe Food Engineering

Electrospun functional nanofibers enable controlled release of the loaded active ingredient and an adjustable dissolution rate. However, the widespread use of toxic organic solvents in electrospinning poses risks to human health and the environment whereas increasing production costs and complexity. This article examines the application of eco-friendly electrospinning technologies in food engineering, with a focus on water-based and melt electrospinning methods. It provides a detailed analysis of water-soluble biopolymers and synthetic polymers, highlighting their current applications and challenges in food engineering. Water-based electrospinning is proposed as a sustainable alternative, offering scalability and reduced environmental impact. This transition is essential for advancing food engineering toward more sustainable and environmentally responsible practices.

Biosynthesis and metabolic engineering of natural sweeteners

Natural sweeteners have attracted widespread attention because they are eco-friendly, healthy, low in calories, and tasty. The demand for natural sweeteners is increasing together with the popularity of green, low-carbon, sustainable development. With the development of synthetic biology, microbial cell factories have emerged as an effective method to produce large amounts of natural sweeteners. This technology has significantly progressed in recent years. This review summarizes the pathways and the enzymes related to the biosynthesis of natural sweeteners, such as mogrosides, steviol glycosides, glycyrrhizin, glycyrrhetinic acid, phlorizin, trilobatin, erythritol, sorbitol, mannitol, thaumatin, monellin, and brazzein. Moreover, it focuses on the research about the microbial production of these natural sweeteners using synthetic biology methods, aiming to provide a reference for future research on the production of natural sweeteners.

Advanced applications in enzyme-induced electrospun nanofibers

Electrospun nanofibers, renowned for their high specific surface area, robust mechanical properties, and versatile chemical functionalities, offer a promising platform for enzyme immobilization. Over the past decade, significant strides have been made in developing enzyme-induced electrospun nanofibers (EIEN). This review systematically summarizes the advanced applications of EIEN which are fabricated using both non-specific immobilization methods including interfacial adsorption (direct adsorption, cross-linking, and covalent binding) and encapsulation, and specific immobilization techniques (coordination and affinity immobilization). Future research should prioritize optimizing immobilization techniques to achieve a balance between enzyme activity, stability, and cost-effectiveness, thereby facilitating the industrialization of EIEN. We elucidate the rationale behind various immobilization methods and their applications, such as wastewater treatment, biosensors, and biomedicine. We aim to provide guidelines for developing suitable EIEN immobilization techniques tailored to specific future applications.

Siraitia grosvenorii As a Homologue of Food and Medicine: A Review of Biological Activity, Mechanisms of Action, Synthetic Biology, and Applications in Future Food

Siraitia grosvenorii (SG), also known as Luo Han Guo or Monk fruit, boasts a significant history in food and medicine. This review delves into SG's historical role and varied applications in traditional Chinese culture, examining its phytochemical composition and the health benefits of its bioactive compounds. It further explores SG's biological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic properties and elucidates the mechanisms behind these effects. The review also highlights recent synthetic biology advances in enhancing the production of SG's bioactive compounds, presenting new opportunities for broadening their availability. Ultimately, this review emphasizes SG's value in food and medicine, showcasing its historical and cultural importance, phytochemistry, biological functions, action mechanisms, and the role of synthetic biology in its sustainable use.

Advances in Natural Product Extraction Techniques, Electrospun Fiber Fabrication, and the Integration of Experimental Design: A Comprehensive Review

The present review explores the growing interest in the techniques employed for extracting natural products. It emphasizes the limitations of conventional extraction methods and introduces superior non-conventional alternatives, particularly ultrasound-assisted extraction. Characterization and quantification of bioactive constituents through chromatography coupled with spectroscopy are recommended, while the importance of method development and validation for biomarker quantification is underscored. At present, electrospun fibers provide a versatile platform for incorporating bioactive extracts and have extensive potential in diverse fields due to their unique structural and functional characteristics. Thus, the review also highlights the fabrication of electrospun fibers containing bioactive extracts. The preparation of biologically active extracts under optimal conditions, including the selection of safe solvents and cost-effective equipment, holds promising potential in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. Integration of experimental design into extraction procedures and formulation development is essential for the efficient production of health products. The review explores potential applications of encapsulating natural product extracts in electrospun fibers, such as wound healing, antibacterial activity, and antioxidant properties, while acknowledging the need for further exploration and optimization in this field. The findings discussed in this review are anticipated to serve as a valuable resource for the processing industry, enabling the utilization of affordable and environmentally friendly, natural, and raw materials.

Efficient snailase-based production of mogrol from Luo Han Guo extract in an aqueous-organic system

To solve the insufficient availability of mogrol, an 11α-hydroxy aglycone of mogrosides in Siraitia grosvenorii, snailase was employed as the enzyme to completely deglycosylate LHG extract containing 50% mogroside V. Other commonly used glycosidases performed less efficiently. Response surface methodology was conducted to optimize the productivity of mogrol, which peaked at 74.7% in an aqueous reaction. In view of the differences in water-solubility between mogrol and LHG extract, we employed an aqueous-organic system for the snailase-catalyzed reaction. Of five tested organic solvents, toluene performed best and was relatively well tolerated by snailase. After optimization, biphasic medium containing 30% toluene (v/v) could produce a high-quality mogrol (98.1% purity) at a 0.5 L scale with a production rate of 93.2% within 20 h. This toluene-aqueous biphasic system would not only provide sufficient mogrol to construct future synthetic biology systems for the preparation of mogrosides, but also facilitate the development of mogrol-based medicines.

Microwave- and Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction of Cucurbitane-Type Triterpenoids from Momordica charantia L. Cultivars and Their Antiproliferative Effect on SAS Human Oral Cancer Cells

Cucurbitane-type triterpenoids are a major class of bioactive compounds present in bitter melon. In the present study, six different cultivars of bitter melon were extracted by using microwave- or ultrasound-assisted techniques to identify the prominent method that can extract the majority of cucurbitane-type triterpenoids. A UHPLC–MS/MS (ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry) system was used for the identification and quantification of ten cucurbitane-type triterpenoids. The results suggest that the use of microwave-assisted extraction on cultivars 4 and 5 produced higher amounts of the selected cucurbitane-type triterpenoids. The interpretation of principal component analysis also identified that cultivar 4 is significantly different from the others in which the compounds 3β,7β,25-trihydroxycucurbita-5,23(E)-dien-19-al and momordicine I were found in higher quantities. Upon further evaluation, it was also identified that these two triterpenoids can act as antiproliferative agents due to their effects on SAS human oral cancer cell lines.

Engineering of a UDP-Glycosyltransferase for the Efficient Whole-Cell Biosynthesis of Siamenoside I in Escherichia coli

The combination of the insufficient availability and the complex structure of siamenoside I (SI), the sweetest glucoside isolated from Siraitia grosvenorii to date, limited its use as a natural sweetener. To solve this problem, an improved biocatalyst, UGT-M2, was semi-rationally created by engineering the uridine diphosphate glycosyltransferase UGT94-289-2 from S. grosvenorii for the monoglucosylation of mogroside IIIE (MG IIIE) to SI. Subsequently, an engineered Escherichia coli cell was constructed, which combined UGT-M2 with a UDP-glucose regeneration system to circumvent the need for expensive UDP-glucose to produce SI. After optimization, high-purity SI (>96.4%) was efficiently prepared from MG IIIE at a 1 L scale with a productivity of 29.78 g/(L day) and a molar yield of 76.5% and without using exogenous UDP-glucose. This study not only developed a whole-cell approach for the preparation of SI but also provided an alternative glycosyltransferase variant for SI biosynthesis with synthetic biology in the future.

Production of Trans-Cinnamic Acid by Immobilization of the Bambusa oldhamii BoPAL1 and BoPAL2 Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyases on Electrospun Nanofibers

Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) catalyzes the nonoxidative deamination of phenylalanine to yield trans-cinnamic acid and ammonia. Recombinant Bambusa oldhamii BoPAL1/2 proteins were immobilized onto electrospun nanofibers by dextran polyaldehyde as a cross-linking agent. A central composite design (CCD)-response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized to optimize the electrospinning parameters. Escherichia coli expressed eBoPAL2 exhibited the highest catalytic efficiency among four enzymes. The optimum conditions for fabricating nanofibers were determined as follows: flow rate of 0.10 mL/h, voltage of 13.8 kV, and distance of 13 cm. The response surface models were used to obtain the smaller the fiber diameters as well as the highest PAL activity in the enzyme immobilization. Compared with free BoPALs, immobilized BoPALs can be reused for at least 6 consecutive cycles. The remained activity of the immobilized BoPAL proteins after storage at 4 °C for 30 days were between 75 and 83%. In addition, the tolerance against denaturants of the immobilized BoPAL proteins were significantly enhanced. As a result, the dextran polyaldehyde natural cross-linking agent can effectively replace traditional chemical cross-linking agents for the immobilization of the BoPAL enzymes. The PAL/nylon 6/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/chitosan (CS) nanofibers made are extremely stable and are practical for industrial applications in the future.

High-Yield Synthesis of Transglycosylated Mogrosides Improves the Flavor Profile of Monk Fruit Extract Sweeteners

Luo Han Guo fruit extract (Siraitia grosvenorii), mainly composed of mogroside V (50%), could be considered a suitable alternative to free sugars; however, its commercial applications are limited by its unpleasant off-notes. In the present work, a central composite design method was employed to optimize the transglycosylation of a mogroside extract using cyclodextrin glucosyltransferases (CGTases) from three different bacteriological sources (Paenibacillus macerans, Geobacillus sp., and Thermoanaerobacter sp.) considering various experimental parameters such as maltodextrin and mogroside concentration, temperature, time of reaction, enzymatic activity, and pH. Product structures were determined by liquid chromatography coupled to a diode-array detector (LC-DAD), liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS), and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Sensory analysis of glucosylated mogrosides showed an improvement in flavor attributes relevant to licorice flavor and aftereffect. Consequently, an optimum methodology was developed to produce new modified mogrosides more suitable when formulating food products as free sugar substitutes.