European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Iphiona scabra ( family Astraceae), is a medicinal endangered wild plant growing in Sinai Peninsula. It is rich in flavonoids and used in traditional medicine as an antispasmodic drug. Flavonoids have various biological activities like anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, Alzheimer’s disease suppression and anti-cancer. The aim of this study was to use tissue culture technique for callus production of I. scarba and enhancing productivity of callus biomass and total flavonoids content (TFC) in solid culture medium. Shoot tips have been cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium fortified with 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2.4-D) at concentrations 0.25, 0.50 and 1.00 mg/l with kinetin (Kin) at 0.10 mg/l for the initiation of callus. For mass production of callus it was transferred to MS supplemented with thidiazuron (TDZ) 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 mg/l combined with 0.5mg/l 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). Callus biomass was transferred to MS medium with different concentrations of either yeast extract as an elicitor or phenylalanine as a precursor at concentrations of 0.0, 25, 50, 100 and 200 mg/l. The best concentration that gave the highest accumulation of TFC was MS medium supplemented with 25 mg/l yeast extract. It gave 5.44 fold increase in callus biomass on the fourth week. The best treatment was MS medium fortified with 25 mg/l phenylalanine on the sixth week. That gave the highest fresh weight of callus 7.93 g/jar and accumulation of TFC 5.33 fold. Such potential method biotechnological strategies ensure better homogenous and stable production of sustainable flavonoids throughout the year under controlled environmental conditions

This research paper entitles the research work regarding bio-hydrogen generation from a renewable source, namely biomass; such as a group of photosynthetic microorganisms cyanobacteria. Molecular hydrogen is widely regarded as the energy carrier of the future. It can be used in fuel cells, generating an electric current. Biohydrogen production has several advantages when compared to photoelectrochemical or thermo-chemical processes due to the low energy requirement and  investment cost. Cyanobacteria has an inherent ability to produce molecular hydrogen via the enzyme complex nitrogenase. This hydrogen is not released, however but is recaptured by the bacteria using an uptake hydrogenase. The study also foretells about optimization of the various key parameters that enhance hydrogen production. This knowledge can be used to evaluate the possibilities for producing hydrogen and high value products efficiently in the same process.

Some cyanobacteria of the genus Anabaena produce compounds of commercial interest. This study reports the effect of the concentration of nutrients in function of sodium nitrate and ammonium nitrate at 0, 2, and 4 mM; and the irradiance at 39, 117 and 234 mol m-2 s-1 over time, on the production of biomass (measured with various methods) from a consortium of microalgae and cyanobacteria with predominant Anabaena sp. in fed batch cultures. Those were scaled up to 10 L and their biomass harvested, dried and chemically analyzed. The growth and biochemical composition of the consortium was influenced by the combination of the above factors, with statistical significance (p<0.05). The best production of pigments and biomass was generated on the combination of factors: nitrate concentration (2 mM) and Irradiance (234 mol m-2 s-1 or 12 klux). A notorious increase in the amount of biomass was produced using ammonium nitrate as a nitrogen source. The biochemical composition of the harvested biomass determined potential applications in the food and pharma industries as well as biofertilizer and soil conditioner.