Effects of Hard Water Boiling on Chalky Rice in Terms of Texture Improvement and Ca Fortification

In the present paper, we investigated the characteristics of chalky rice grains generated by ripening under high temperature and compared them with whole grains. We evaluated 14 unpolished Japonica rice grains harvested in Japan in 2021, and these samples (original grains) were divided into two groups (a whole grain group and a chalky grain one). We found that not only activities of endogenous amylase and proteinase, but also cell wall-degrading enzymes, such as xylanase and cellulase, changed markedly between chalky grains and whole grains. Using rice grains blended with 30% of chalky grains as the material, we compared the sugar and mineral contents and textural properties of the rice grains soaked and boiled in either ordinary water or hard water, such as Evian or Contrex. It was shown that xylanase, in addition to amylase and proteinase, may play an important role in changing the texture of the boiled chalky rice grains. For the sake of preventing the above-mentioned deterioration in the texture of boiled grains of chalky rice, we tried to use hard water, such as Evian or Contrex, to soak and cook the chalky rice grains. It was shown that the hard water was useful for the prevention of texture deterioration of the boiled rice grains due to inhibition of the activities of endogenous hydrolytic enzymes, such as α-amylase, β-amylase, proteinase, and xylanase. Furthermore, we found that the hard water was useful in increasing the calcium absorption through the meal by 2.6 to 16.5 times.

Streptomyces xylanilyticus sp. nov., isolated from soil

A novel actinomycete, strain SR2-123^T, belonging to the genus Streptomyces, was isolated from a soil sample collected from the Sakaerat Environmental Research Station, Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research, Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand. The taxonomic position of the strain was characterized using a polyphasic study. Strain SR2-123^T contained ll-diaminopimelic acid, glucose, mannose and ribose in whole-cell hydrolysates. The N-acyl type of muramic acid was acetyl. Menaquinones were MK-9(H6), MK-9(H8) and MK-9(H4). The predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C16 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, an unknown phospholipid, unknown glycolipids, an unknown aminophospholipid, unknown lipids and an unknown aminolipid. The DNA G+C content was 74.8 mol%. The strain was closely related to Streptomyces coeruleorubidus JCM 4359^T (98.5 %), Streptomyces flavofungini JCM 4753^T (98.5 %), Streptomyces coerulescens NBRC 12758^T (98. 5 %) and Streptomyces alboflavus JCM 4615^T (98.4 %), based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities. The novel strain exhibited low DNA-DNA relatedness values with the type strains (11.4-25.0 %) of closely related species. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, strain SR2-123^T could be distinguished from closely related species of the genus Streptomyces and represents a novel species of the genus Streptomyces for which the name Streptomyces xylanilyticus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SR2-123^T (=TISTR 2493^T=KCTC 39909^T).

Application of Hybrid Genetic Algorithm Routine in Optimizing Food and Bioengineering Processes

Optimization is a crucial step in the analysis of experimental results. Deterministic methods only converge on local optimums and require exponentially more time as dimensionality increases. Stochastic algorithms are capable of efficiently searching the domain space; however convergence is not guaranteed. This article demonstrates the novelty of the hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA), which combines both stochastic and deterministic routines for improved optimization results. The new hybrid genetic algorithm developed is applied to the Ackley benchmark function as well as case studies in food, biofuel, and biotechnology processes. For each case study, the hybrid genetic algorithm found a better optimum candidate than reported by the sources. In the case of food processing, the hybrid genetic algorithm improved the anthocyanin yield by 6.44%. Optimization of bio-oil production using HGA resulted in a 5.06% higher yield. In the enzyme production process, HGA predicted a 0.39% higher xylanase yield. Hybridization of the genetic algorithm with a deterministic algorithm resulted in an improved optimum compared to statistical methods.

Rapid development of xylanase assay conditions using Taguchi methodology

The present investigation is mainly concerned with the rapid development of extracellular xylanase assay conditions by using Taguchi methodology. The extracellular xylanase was produced from Aspergillus niger (KP874102.1), a new strain isolated from a soil sample of the Baramura forest, Tripura West, India. Four physical parameters including temperature, pH, buffer concentration and incubation time were considered as key factors for xylanase activity and were optimized using Taguchi robust design methodology for enhanced xylanase activity. The main effect, interaction effects and optimal levels of the process factors were determined using signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. The Taguchi method recommends the use of S/N ratio to measure quality characteristics. Based on analysis of the S/N ratio, optimal levels of the process factors were determined. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to evaluate statistically significant process factors. ANOVA results showed that temperature contributed the maximum impact (62.58%) on xylanase activity, followed by pH (22.69%), buffer concentration (9.55%) and incubation time (5.16%). Predicted results showed that enhanced xylanase activity (81.47%) can be achieved with pH 2, temperature 50°C, buffer concentration 50 Mm and incubation time 10 min.