title: Production, characterization and biological features of bacterial cellulose from scum obtained during preparation of sugarcane jaggery (gur).
abstract: Bacterial cellulose (BC) has been given an ample attention due to its high potential for many industrial applications. However, the high cost of production medium has hindered the commercialization of BC. Several efforts have been made to explore cheep, raw and waste sources for BC production. The current study aims at investigating the BC production from a waste source; the scum obtained during preparation of sugarcane jaggery or gur (JS). JS was five-fold diluted with distilled water and used as culturing medium without any additional nutrients. The production of BC was monitored till 10th days of cultivation both at static and shaking culturing conditions. A maximum of 2.51 g/L and 2.13 g/L BC was produced in shaking and static cultures, respectively, after 10 days. The structure features of BC were confirmed through FTIR, XRD and SEM analysis. The chemical structure and physical appearance strongly resembled the BC produced form synthetic media. It was noteworthy that the BC produced from JS showed higher mechanical and thermal properties. The cell adhesion and proliferation capabilities of produced BC were observed that depicted definite animal cell adhesion without any considerable cytotoxicity. Besides providing an economically feasible way for BC production, the high level of physico-mechanical and biological properties insured the importance in medical fields.
authors.affiliation: COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, 22060 Pakistan.
authors.forename: Waleed Ahmad
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Khattak
authors.affiliation: COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, 22060 Pakistan.
authors.forename: Taous
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701 Korea ; Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Dhofar University, Salalah, 211 Oman.
authors.forename: Mazhar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ul-Islam
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701 Korea.
authors.forename: Muhammad Wajid
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Ullah
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701 Korea.
authors.forename: Shaukat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, 22060 Pakistan.
authors.forename: Fazli
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wahid
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701 Korea.
authors.forename: Joong Kon
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Park
keywords: Bacterial cellulose; Biocompatibility; Jaggery Scum; Physiological characterization; Structural analysis