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Microbial fermentation is an indigenous process known to be adapted for centuries by different communities and folks for the improvement of the quality of the food. Quality enhancement of the food is mostly carried out by lactic acid fermentation and sometimes probiotic fermentation mainly for the elongation of shelf-life, nutritional value addition and improvement of the sensory property. Technological interventions have led to the commercial production of many indigenous probiotic foods and beverages. The article reviews varieties of ethnic and industrial probiotic food and their distribution throughout the globe. Also, the health perspective, the involvement of microorganisms and their impact on the development of the food product have been elucidated in the article. Moreover, bottlenecks and the direction of research and commercialization with regards to ethnic and industrial probiotic food are of crucial importance and are also discussed in this review.

Wound healing/cicatrization is a complex series of intricate processes that involve renewal of skin/epidermis after injury. A large number of ethno-medicinal plants/plant extracts are used by tribal and folklore traditions in developing world for the treatment of wounds, burns and cuts in distinct appearances. Moreover, plants/plant extracts have a significant history and successful clinical track record as indigenous drugs in wound repair systems. This review provides detailed information on molecular and cellular mechanism of plant/plant extracts on wound healing applications and further analyses the opportunities and scope with its future openings and prospects owing to the multifaceted challenges attached with neo-tissue regeneration. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In recent year, konjac glucomannan (KGM) has attracted more attention due to its non-harmful and non-toxic properties, good biocompatibility, biodegradability and hydrophilic ability. Moreover, KGM and their derivatives have several importances in the multidirectional research areas such as nutritional, biotechnological and fine chemical fields. In the previous article, we have reviewed the nutritional aspects of KGM covering the various aspects of functional foods, food additives and their derivatives. This review aims at highlighting the diverse biomedical research conducted on KGM in the past ten years, covering therapies for anti-obesity, regulation in lipid metabolism, laxative effect, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, prebiotic to wound dressing applications. Moreover, this review deals with global health aspects of KGM and the disparate health related factors associated with diseases and their control measures.

Fermentation has been used long ago for human consumption and food production. Fermentation process is not only beneficial for prolonging the shelf life of foods, beverage, and gruel, but also fermentation can increase the nutritional value in a safe and effective manner. Nowadays, modern fermentation technologies are used for industrial food production; putting these things in mind, it is necessary to identify and optimize naturally occurring microorganisms. It is defined as starter cultures to ensure consistency and commercial viability and also ensure safety, texture, and flavor of the product. The main property is to improve the health and prevent diseases such as colorectal cancer, obesity, and osteoporosis.

Lactobacillus plantarum (widespread member of the genus Lactobacillus) is one of the most studied species extensively used in food industry as probiotic microorganism and/or microbial starter. The exploitation of Lb. plantarum strains with their long history in food fermentation forms an emerging field and design of added-value foods. Lb. plantarum strains were also used to produce new functional (traditional/novel) foods and beverages with improved nutritional and technological features. Lb. plantarum strains were identified from many traditional foods and characterized for their systematics and molecular taxonomy, enzyme systems (α-amylase, esterase, lipase, α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, enolase, phosphoketolase, lactase dehydrogenase, etc.), and bioactive compounds (bacteriocin, dipeptides, and other preservative compounds). This review emphasizes that the Lb. plantarum strains with their probiotic properties can have great effects against harmful microflora (foodborne pathogens) to increase safety and shelf-life of fermented foods.

Alphaviruses, such as Chikungunya virus, O’Nyong–Nyong virus, Ross River virus, have been widely known to cause fever, rash, and rheumatic diseases. In addition, several other alphaviruses, for instance Eastern equine encephalitis virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, and Western equine encephalitis virus, potentially cause fatal encephalitis in humans. These diseases are considered as neglected tropical diseases for which there are no current antiviral therapies or vaccines available. The replication process in alphaviruses depends on four nonstructural proteins, NSP1–NSP4, which are produced as a single polyprotein. Therefore, the Alphavirus-mediated diseases in humans remain challenging among the virologists worldwide. Thus researchers are trying to find out proficient approaches, including the discovery of novel chemotherapeutic agents for the possible management and treatment of infected patients. Attempts were also made to identify an active compound against alphaviruses from natural sources. The genomes of various alphaviruses have already been revealed, and the function of proteins may be predicted by homology modeling, with the known proteins of closely related viruses. With the help of this information of protein modeling and subsequent virtual screening approach, the research teams will be able to identify few potential leads. The drug discovery against various alphaviruses is still in its early stages. Moreover, consolidating the available information and making it available for the scientific community are urgent requirements to expedite the research of potential drug discovery. The current chapter describes the techniques available to prevent Alphavirus infection and to treat Alphavirus-associated malignancies. In addition, we also discuss the recent outcomes in the fields of synthetic and natural medicinal chemistry research that were solely aimed to fight against Alphavirus infection. Thus the present chapter may also help and expedite the drug discovery and development of inhibitors against nonstructural proteins of various alphaviruses.

Cellulose, present in renewable lignocellulosic material, is considered to be the most abundant organic substrate on earth for production of hexose and pentose sugars, feedstock for fuel, and for other chemicals. Research on cellulase has progressed very rapidly in the past few decades with an emphasis on enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to hexose sugars. The enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose requires the use of cellulase [1,4-(1,3:1,4)-β-D-glucan glucanohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.4], a multiple enzyme system consisting of endo-1,4,-β-D-glucanases [1,4-β-D-glucanases (CMCase, EC 3.2.1.4)], exo-1,4,-β-D-glucanases [1,4-β-D glucan cellobiohydrolase, FPA, EC 3.2.1.91], and β—glucosidase (cellobiase) (β-D-glucoside glucanohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.21). Major impediments to exploit the commercial potential of cellulases are the economic yield, stability, specificity, and above all, the cost of production. In the last few years, emphasis has been devoted mainly to submerged fermentation and less attention has been given to solid state fermentation (SSF). SSF refers to the process whereby microbial growth and product fermentation occur on the surface of solid materials. This process occurs in the absence of “free” water, where the moisture is absorbed to the solid matrix. The direct applicability of the product, the high product concentration, lower production cost, easy product recovery, and reduced energy requirement make SSF a promising technology for cellulase production. This chapter covers the production of cellulase in SSF using various lignocellulosic substrates, the microorganisms involved, cultural conditions, process parameters (ie, moisture content and water activity, mass transfer processes: aeration and nutrients diffusion, substrate particle size, temperature, pH, surfactants, etc.), bioreactor designs, and the strategies to improve enzyme yield.

Lignocellulose is the most plentiful non-food biomass and one of the most inexhaustible renewable resources on the planet, which is an alternative sustainable energy source for the production of second generation biofuels. Lignocelluloses are composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, in which the sugar polymers account for a large portion of the biomass. Cellulases belong to the glycoside hydrolase family and catalyze the hydrolysis of glyosidic linkages depolymerizing cellulose to fermentable sugars. They are multi-enzymatic complex proteins and require the synergistic action of three key enzymes: endoglucanase (E.C. 3.2.1.4), exoglucanase (E.C. 3.2.1.176) (E.C. 3.2.1.91) and β-glucosidase (E.C. 3.2.1.21) for the depolymerization of cellulose to glucose. Solid state fermentation, which holds growth of microorganisms on moist solid substrates in the absence of free flowing water, has gained considerable attention of late due its several advantages over submerged fermentation. The review summarizes the critical analysis of recent literature covering production of cellulase in solid state fermentation using advance technologies such as consolidated bioprocessing, metabolic engineering and strain improvement, and circumscribes the strategies to improve the enzyme yield.