• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.441-445
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• 2005

Pinitol and chiro-inositol exert insulin-like effect by mediating post-receptor signaling pathway. Total chiro-inositol concentrations, including pinitol, chiro-inositol, and their derivatives, were determined in 115 natural and food materials to identify economical sources for mass production of pinitol. Carob pod, Bougainvillea, soy whey, and soybean oligosaccharides were rich sources of chiro-inositol. Pinitol was isolated from soy whey and carob pod, considered as economically viable sources, by chromatographic separation using activated carbon. Soy and carob pinitols had same chemical structure as that of reference pinitol based on HPLC and NMR results. Oral administration of soy pinitol and carob pinitol (10 mg/kg) significantly decreased blood glucose at 2-6 hr in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. These results suggest pinitol isolated from soy whey and carob pod could be beneficial in controlling blood glucose in animal model of diabetes mellitus.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.837-844
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• 2015

Carob waste is a useful raw material for the second-generation ethanol because 50% of its dry weight is sucrose, glucose, and fructose. To optimize the process, we have studied the influence of the initial concentration of sugars on the fermentation performance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. With initial sugar concentrations (S₀ ) of 20 g/l, the yeasts were derepressed and the ethanol produced during the exponential phase was consumed in a diauxic phase. The rate of ethanol consumption decreased with increasing S₀ and disappeared at 250 g/l when the Crabtree effect was complete and almost all the sugar consumed was transformed into ethanol with a yield factor of 0.42 g/g. Sucrose hydrolysis was delayed at high S₀ because of glucose repression of invertase synthesis, which was triggered at concentrations above 40 g/l. At S₀ higher than 250 g/l, even when glucose had been exhausted, sucrose was hydrolyzed very slowly, probably due to an inhibition at this low water activity. Although with lower metabolic rates and longer times of fermentation, 250 g/l is considered the optimal initial concentration because it avoids the diauxic consumption of ethanol and maintains enough invertase activity to consume all the sucrose, and also avoids the inhibitions due to lower water activities at higher S₀ .