Brett Pletschke

• Professor at Rhodes University

Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are major health concerns worldwide, often managed with treatments that have significant limitations and side effects. This study examines the potential of sodium alginates, extracted from Ecklonia radiata and Sargassum elegans, to inhibit digestive enzymes involved in managing these conditions. We chemic...

Poultry production faces several challenges, with feed efficiency being the main factor that can be influenced through the use of different nutritional strategies. Xylooligosaccharides (XOS) are functional feed additives that are attracting growing commercial interest due to their excellent ability to modulate the composition of the gut microbiota....

The endoxylanase XT6 produced by Geobacillus stearothermophilus is a desirable candidate for industrial applications. In this study, the gene encoding XT6 was cloned using the pET-28a expression vector and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells. Recombinant XT6 production was improved by optimizing cell lysis (sonication, chemical, and enzy...

The purpose of the study was to pretreat fermented rooibos biomass with partially purified horseradish peroxidase (HRP) for lignin removal and to convert delignified biomass to soluble sugars through saccharification with a formulated holocel-lulolytic enzyme cocktail (HEC). HRP enzyme was extracted from the horseradish root tissue and was partiall...

Spent coffee ground (SCG), an agro-industrial waste, have a high content of polysaccharides such as mannan, making it ideal for utilisation for the production of nutraceutical oligosaccharides. Recently, there has been growing interest in the production of mannooligosaccharides (MOS) for health promotion in humans and animals. MOS are reported to e...

An Aspergillus niger endo-1,4-β-mannanase, Man26A, was confirmed by FTIR and XRD to be immobilised on glutaraldehyde-activated chitosan nanoparticles via covalent bonding. The immobilisation (%) and activity yields (%) were 82.25% and 20.75%, respectively. The biochemical properties (pH, temperature optima, and stability) were then comparatively ev...

Xylanases are hydrolytic enzymes with a wide range of applications in several industries such as biofuels, paper and pulp, food, and feed. The objective of this study was to optimize the culture conditions and medium components for maximal xylanase production from a newly isolated Trichoderma harzianum strain using the Plackett–Burman Design (PBD)...

Fungal β-mannanases hydrolyze β-1, 4-glycosidic bonds of mannans and find application in the generation of mannose and prebiotic mannooligosaccharides (MOS). Previously, a MOS generating β-mannanase from Aspergillus oryzae MTCC 1846 (βManAo) was characterized and its structural and functional properties were unraveled through homology modeling and...

Fungi are renowned for their ability to produce extracellular enzymes into their surrounding environment. Xylanases are hydrolytic enzymes capable of xylan degradation. The objectives of this study were to isolate, screen for potential xylanolytic fungi from soil and tree bark samples from three locations in South Africa and to determine their grow...

Both β-mannanases and β-mannosidases are required for mannan-backbone degradation into mannose. In this study, two β-mannosidases of glycoside hydrolase (GH) families 2 (BtMan2A) and 5 (CmMan5A) were evaluated for their substrate specificities and galactomannan binding ability. BtMan2A preferred short manno-oligomers, while CmMan5A preferred longer...

Marine microorganisms represent virtually unlimited sources of novel biological compounds, and can survive extreme conditions. Cellulases, a group of enzymes which are able to degrade cellulosic materials, are in high demand in various industrial and biotechnological applications, such as in the medical and pharmaceutical industry, food, fuel, agri...

One of the biggest challenges hindering the successful commercialisation of biofuels is the high dosages of enzymes still required to hydrolyse lignocellulose into fermentable sugars. Enzyme recycling has been recognised as a promising approach to alleviate this problem by reducing enzyme costs and improving the profitability of the bioconversion p...

Although there are chemotherapeutic efforts in place for Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), there is a need for novel strategies (including natural products) to manage T2DM. Fucoidan, a sulphated polysaccharide was extracted from Ecklonia radiata. The integrity of the fucoidan was confirmed by structural analysis techniques such as FT-IR, NMR and TGA...

Enzymes classified with the same Enzyme Commission (EC) that are allotted in different glycoside hydrolase (GH) families can display different mechanisms of action and substrate specificities. Therefore, the combination of different enzyme classes may not yield synergism during biomass hydrolysis, as the GH family allocation of the enzymes influenc...

Lignocellulose has economic potential as a bio-resource for the production of value-added products (VAPs) and biofuels. The commercialization of biofuels and VAPs requires efficient enzyme cocktail activities that can lower their costs. However, the basis of the synergism between enzymes that compose cellulolytic enzyme cocktails for depolymerizing...

A growing demand in novel food products for well-being and preventative medicine has attracted global attention on nutraceutical prebiotics. Various plant agro-processes produce large amounts of residual biomass considered “wastes”, which can potentially be used to produce nutraceutical prebiotics, such as manno-oligosaccharides (MOS). MOS can be p...

Lignocellulosic biomass is an important renewable resource to produce biofuels, due to its abundance and high polysaccharide content. Bioconversion is generally achieved in two stages: (i) pre-treatment, to reduce biomass recalcitrance, and (ii) enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis into fermentable sugars. However, the key structural and chemical feature...

In this study, a GH26 endo-mannanase (Man26A) from an Aspergillus niger ATCC 10864 strain, with a molecular mass of 47.8 kDa, was cloned in a yBBH1 vector and expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Y294 strain cells. Upon fractionation by ultra-filtration, the substrate specificity and substrate degradation pattern of the endo-mannanase (Man26A) wer...

The gut microbiota in the human body is an important component that plays a pivotal role in the ability of the host to prevent diseases and recover from these diseases. If the human microbiome changes for any reason, it affects the overall functioning of the host. Healthy and vigorous gut microbiota require dietary fiber supplementation. Recently,...

Catechol O-methyltransferase, an enzyme involved in the metabolism of catechol containing compounds, catalyzes the transfer of a methyl group between S-adenosylmethionine and the hydroxyl groups of the catechol. Furthermore it is considered a potential drug target for Parkinson’s disease as it metabolizes the drug levodopa. Consequently inhibitors...

Xylanases are glycoside hydrolases (GH) that degrade β-1,4-xylan, a linear polysaccharide found as hemicellulose in cell wall of plants. Endoxylanase (Endo-1,4-β-xylanase, EC 3.2.1.8) randomly catalyses xylan to produce varying short xylooligosaccharides (XOS). This study aimed to determine the characteristics of a partially purified endoxylanase f...

The conventional endo–exo synergism model has extensively been supported in literature, which is based on the perception that endoglucanases (EGs) expose or create accessible sites on the cellulose chain to facilitate the action of processive cellobiohydrolases (CBHs). However, there is a lack of information on why some bacterial and fungal CBHs an...

Cereal feedstocks have high arabinoxylan content as their main hemicellulose, which is linked to lignin by hydroxycinnamic acids such as ferulic acid. The ferulic acid is linked to arabinoxylan by ester bonds, and generally, the high substitution of ferulic acid leads to a loss of activity of xylanases targeting the arabinoxylan. In the current stu...

Fucoidans are complex polysaccharides derived from brown seaweeds which consist of considerable proportions of L-fucose and other monosaccharides, and sulphated ester residues. The search for novel and natural bioproduct drugs (due to toxicity issues associated with chemotherapeutics) has led to the extensive study of fucoidan due to reports of it...

The extracellular peroxidase from Streptomyces albidoflavus BSII#1 was purified to near homogeneity using sequential steps of acid and acetone precipitation, followed by ultrafiltration. The purified peroxidase was characterised and tested for the ability to catalyse coupling reactions between selected phenolic monomer pairs. A 46-fold purification...

Among endo-mannanases, glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 26 enzymes have been shown to be more catalytically active than GH5 enzymes on mannans. However, only GH5 endo-mannanases have been used for the formulation of enzyme cocktails. In this study, Bacillus sp.-derived GH5 and GH26 endo-mannanases were comparatively analysed biochemically for their...

Xylan, the most abundant hemicellulose and major component in lignocellulosic biomass requires depolymerisation in order for it to be used as a precursor for the production of value added products (VAPs). As global interest in using lignocellulosic feedstocks for VAPs production increases, an accompanying knowledge on how to efficiently depolymeris...

Sweet sorghum bagasse (SSB) and corncob (CC) have been identified as promising feedstocks for the production of second-generation biofuels and other value-added chemicals. In this study, lime (Ca(OH)2) and NaOH pretreatment efficacy for decreasing recalcitrance from SSB and CC was investigated, and subsequently, the pretreated biomass was subjected...

The inhibitory effect of eight model lignin derivatives (ferulic acid, guaiacol, kraft lignin (alkali, low sulfonate content), p-coumaric acid, gallic acid, syringic acid, vanillin and vanillic acid) on XynA activity was evaluated. The model lignin derivatives viz. gallic acid, vanillic acid and vanillin were inhibitory to XynA activity, with an ov...

Paper sludge is an attractive biomass feedstock for bioconversion to ethanol due to its low cost and the lack of pretreatment required for its bioprocessing. This study assessed the use of a recombinant cellulase cocktail (mono-components: S. cerevisiae-derived PcBGL1B (BGL), TeCel7A (CBHI), ClCel6A (CBHII) and TrCel5A (EGII) mono-component cellula...

Cellulase cocktails formulated to degrade crystalline cellulose generally contain cellobiohydrolases (CBHs), referred to as CBHI (Cel7A) and CBHII (Cel6A), as the major constituents. The combined hydrolytic activities of CBHI and CBHII improve the release of fermentable sugars (β-1,4-cellobiose as the main product) from crystalline cellulose. In th...

Kelps are a specific type of large brown seaweeds that generally grow on rocky, shallow, nutrient-rich ocean water. The most common examples of kelps found in the South African coastlines include Ecklonia maxima (sea bamboo) (Fig. 1), Ecklonia radiata (Fig. 1), Macrocystis angustifoilia (bladder kelp) and Laminaria pallida (split fan kelp). The dis...

Agricultural residues are considered the most promising option as a renewable feedstock for biofuel and high valued-added chemical production due to their availability and low cost. The efficient enzymatic hydrolysis of agricultural residues into value-added products such as sugars and hydroxycinnamic acids is a challenge because of the recalcitran...

An endo-1,4-β-xylanase, XynA, from Thermomyces lanuginosus VAPS-24, was purified to homogeneity and exhibited a molecular mass of approximately 20 kDa. The protein sequence of XynA was found to be similar to those of other Thermomyces lanuginosus derived xylanases and, as a result, could be used as a model enzyme for understanding the protein struc...

An exoglucanase (Exg-D) from the glycoside hydrolase family 5 subfamily 38 (GH5_38) was heterologously expressed and structurally and biochemically characterised at a molecular level for its application in alkyl glycoside synthesis. The purified Exg-D existed in both dimeric and monomeric forms in solution, which showed highest activity on mixed-li...

Ecklonia maxima, an endemic South African seaweed, is a potential source of beneficial bioactive compounds. Among these compounds, fucoidan, a sulphated polysaccharide has a wide range of bioactivities including anti-diabetic activity. In this study, fucoidan was extracted from E. maxima by the hot water extraction method and then characterised by...

Hydrothermal pre-treatments decrease lignocellulose recalcitrance against enzymatic hydrolysis by removing the majority of the hemicellulose, thus increasing cellulase accessibility. However, a small amount of the hemicellulose may remain and become adsorbed to the cellulose, leading to cellulase inhibition. Here, we produced hemicellulose bound ce...

Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant, carbon neutral, renewable resource that holds potential for the production of biofuels and fine chemicals. First, the lignocellulosic biomass feedstock is required to go through a recalcitrance-reducing step (pretreatment). Enzyme cocktails consisting of cellulolytic or hemicellulolytic (or both) activities a...

This review examines the recent models describing the mode of action of various xylanolytic enzymes and how these enzymes can be applied (sequentially or simultaneously) with their distinctive roles in mind to achieve efficient xylan degradation. With respect to homeosynergy, synergism appears to be as a result of β-xylanase and/or oligosaccharide...

Background: The quest for novel sources of antibacterial compounds have necessitated the inclusion of ericoid mycorrhizal fungi (ERM) commonly found within the root of ericaceous plants. Agar-well diffusion method was used to detect antibacterial activity and was followed by the microbroth diffusion method [minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) a...

Enzymes occur in all living things, hence in ericoid mycorrhizal fungi (ERM). Every species of microorganisms produce enzymes capable of hydrolyzing various substrates. Amylases are known to play a significant role in the food, brewing, detergent and pharmaceutical industries. Leohumicola incrustata, and two unidentified fungi belonging to Hyaloscy...

Xylan, the most abundant hemicellulose in lignocellulosic biomass, requires a consortium of xylanolytic enzymes to achieve its complete de-polymerisation. As global interest in using xylan-containing lignocellulosic feedstocks for biofuel production increases, an accompanying knowledge on how to efficiently depolymerise these feedstocks into fermen...

In vitro studies were conducted to determine the short-term cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of pure glyphosate and two glyphosate formulations (Roundup® and Wipeout®) at concentrations relevant to human exposure using whole blood (cytotoxicity) and various cancer cell lines (cytotoxicity and genotoxicity). Pure glyphosate (pure glyph) and Roundup®...

Abstract This study aimed to purify and characterize amyloglucosidase (AMG) from Leohumicola incrustata. AMG was purified to homogeneity from cell-free culture filtrate of an ERM fungus grown in a modified Melin–Norkrans liquid medium. The molecular mass of the AMG was estimated to be 101 kDa by combining the results of Sephadex G-100 gel filtratio...

Plants as bioreactors have been widely used to express efficient vaccine antigens against viral, bacterial and protozoan infections. To date, many different plant-based expression systems have been analyzed, with a growing preference for transient expression systems. Antibody expression in diverse plant species for therapeutic applications is well...

In the shadow of a burgeoning biomass-to-fuels industry, biological conversion of lignocellulose to fermentable sugars in a cost-effective manner is key to the success of second-generation and advanced biofuel production. For the effective comparison of one cellulase preparation to another, cellulase assays are typically carried out with one or mor...

In this study, two selected hardwoods were subjected to sodium chlorite delignification and steam explosion, and the impact of pre-treatments on synergistic enzymatic saccharification evaluated. A cellulolytic core-set, CelMix, and a xylanolytic core-set, XynMix, optimised for glucose and xylose release, respectively, were used to formulate HoloMix...

The enzymatic degradation of lignocellulosic biomass such as apple pomace is a complex process influenced by a number of hydrolysis conditions. Predicting optimal conditions, including enzyme and substrate concentration, temperature and pH can improve conversion efficiency. In this study, the production of sugar monomers from apple pomace using com...

Cellulosic ethanol production relies on the biochemical (enzymatic) conversion of lignocellulose to fermentable sugars and ultimately to bioethanol. However, the cost of lignocellulolytic enzymes is a limiting factor in the commercialisation of this technology. This therefore necessitates the optimisation of lignocellulolytic enzyme cocktails throu...

Fungal species associated with ericaceous plant roots produce a number of enzymes and other bio-active metabolites in order to enhance survival of their host plants in natural environments. This study focussed on endoglucanase production from root associated ericoid mycorrhizal and dark septate endophytic fungal isolates. Out of the five fungal iso...

Aspergillus terreus FBCC 1369 was grown in solid-state culture under statistically optimized conditions. β-Mannanase was purified to apparent homogeneity by ultrafiltration, anion exchange and gel filtration chromatography. A purification factor of 10.3-fold was achieved, with the purified enzyme exhibiting specific activity of 53 U/mg protein. The...

Xyloglucan is a major component of the primary cell wall of higher plants and forms an intimate network with cellulose through hydrogen bonding and also with hemicellulosic components. In the present study, a bi-functional xylanase/xyloglucanase (GH5H) from a termite metagenome with high xylanase and xyloglucanase activities was used to replace Asp...

Biomass conversion technologies for the production of fuels and value added products have rapidly gained support over the past few decades. The enzymatic conversion of lignocellulosic wastes has been particularly attractive, due to environmental and sustainability concerns. One of the major challenges in the production of cost effective biofuel (vi...

Lignocellulosic biomass has been considered as an important and sustainable source of renewable energy. Cellulose constitutes the major component of the lignocellulosic biomass and also offers maximum recalcitrance towards its fullest utilization. The enzymatic breakdown of cellulose is achieved through cellulases. Diverse forms of microbes includi...

Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass can produce inhibitory compounds that are harmful for microorganisms used in the production of biofuels and other chemicals from lignocellulosic sugars. Selective inhibitor removal can be achieved with biodetoxification where microorganisms catabolize the inhibitors without consuming the sugars. We engineered...

Apple pomace, a waste product from the apple juice industry is a potential feedstock for biofuel and biorefinery chemical production. Optimisation of hydrolysis conditions for apple pomace hydrolysis using Viscozyme L and Celluclast 1.5L was investigated using 1 L reaction volumes. The effects of temperature, pH, β-glucosidase supplementation and s...

Ethanol production through industrial fermentation of sugar-rich and starch-rich crops is well established. However, the production of second generation biofuels from lignocellulosic agricultural wastes is still inefficient. Lignocellulose hydrolyzing enzymes produced by termites and their symbiotic micro-organisms can reveal efficient ways of util...

Mannan is an important polysaccharide found in softwoods and many other plant sources. Mannans from various sources display large differences in composition, structure and complexity. To hydrolyse mannan into its monomer sugars requires a number of enzymes working in synergy. This review examines mannan structure and the enzymes required for its hy...

Current and previous studies on bio-based (fruit) wastes and wastewaters, with a particular emphasis on research in South Africa, were reviewed. Previous studies have focused predominantly on the beneficiation and application of fruit waste as a feedstock for renewable energy. A definite gap in knowledge and application of fruit waste streams with...

Electric eel acetylcholinesterase (AChE) was immobilised on electrospun nylon 6: chitosan nanofibres using glutaraldehyde (GA) cross-linking. The immobilisation protocol was optimised and a GA solution of 5% (v/v) resulted in the immobilisation of 0.334 mg/cm2 of AChE onto the nanofibres. The immobilised enzyme was characterised with respect to pH...

Cost-effective application of lignocellulolytic enzymes holds the key towards commercialization of enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass. Carrier free immobilization of enzyme(s) offers a lucrative prospect. Combined-cross linked enzyme aggregates (combi-CLEAs) are a novel prospective and this present study addresses the preparation, char...

The complex structure of lignocellulose requires the involvement of a suite of lignocellulolytic enzymes for bringing about an effective de-polymerization. Cellulases and hemicellulases from both fungi and bacteria have been studied extensively. This review illustrates the mechanism of action of different cellulolytic and hemi-cellulolytic enzymes...

This study presents the development of a novel first generation nanofiber based colorimetric sensor strip for the determination of glyphosate in water. The proposed method was validated with an optical color change of the poly (vinyl) alcohol (cd-PVA (copper doped poly (vinyl) alcohol)) nanofiber sensor strips from blue to yellow upon the injection...

Ethanol derived from lignocellulosic biomass is a sustainable route to production of biofuels to replace fossil-based transportation fuels. However, enzyme hydrolysis of the biomass polysaccharides into fermentable sugars remains the rate limiting step in the process. This is attributable to the recalcitrance of biomass and low enzyme activities ar...

Thermophilic Bacilli play a key role in the biocomposting process. Methods for analysing microbial diversity and community structure during composting have been especially helpful in characterising this process more completely. Thermophilic Bacilli account for the most prevalent group of thermophiles present in compost and the role of these bacteri...

The enzymatic conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels has been identified as an excellent strategy to generate clean energy. However, the current process is cost-intensive as an effective immobilization approach to reuse the enzyme(s) has been a major challenge. The present study introduces the concept and application of novel magnetic...

Over the past few decades the extremes at which life thrives has continued to challenge our understanding of physiology, biochemistry, microbial ecology and evolution. Innovative culturing approaches, environmental genome sequencing, and whole genome sequencing have provided new opportunities for the biotechnological exploration of extremophiles. T...

Enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass is considered the bottleneck in the biomass-to-bioethanol process and its elucidation and optimization is very important for the development of a sustainable bioethanol industry. Limited research has been carried out on mannan-degrading enzymes in this respect. This study investigated the synerg...

To optimise peroxidase production by Streptomyces sp. strain BSII#1, up to 3 l culture volumes. Peroxidase production by Streptomyces sp. strain BSII#1 was optimised in terms of production temperature and pH and the use of lignin-based model chemical inducers. The highest peroxidase activity (1.30±0.04 U ml(-1) ) in 10 ml culture volume was achieve...

Waste from the food processing industry (e.g. juice production) is produced in large quantities worldwide and contains high levels of lignocellulose. To some extent, value-added products are extracted from this waste, but the majority of the waste is currently unutilised and discarded. Energy generation from this waste has been investigated in the...

Nile perch (Lates niloticus) is a high-value freshwater fish of great social economic importance in Africa's great lakes region. High demand for this fish has caused its extensive harvest, resulting into a decline in the species stocks and consequently financial loss to the Nile perch industry. Several strategies have been suggested to reinstate th...

Lignocellulosic substrates are very complex with a number of different components associated within a three-dimensional network. The complexity of the substrate, as well as the close association between components, makes the substrate recalcitrant to degradation. Such substrates require a large number of hydrolytic enzymes working in synergy to ach...

Over the past few decades the extremes at which life thrives has continued to challenge our understanding of physiology, biochemistry, microbial ecology and evolution. Innovative culturing approaches, environmental genome sequencing, and whole genome sequencing have provided new opportunities for the biotechnological exploration of extremophiles. T...

Enzyme Technology is one the most promising disciplines in modern biotechnology. In this book, the applications of a wide variety of enzymes are highlighted. Current studies in enzyme technology are focused towards the discovery of novel enzymes (termed “bio-discovery” or “bio-prospecting”) and the identification and elucidation of novel pathways o...

The genome sequence of Bacillus licheniformis SVD1, that produces a cellulolytic and hemi-cellulolytic multienzyme complex, was partially determined, indicating that the glycoside hydrolase system of this strain is highly similar to that of B. licheniformis ATCC14580. All of the fifty-six genes encoding glycoside hydrolases identified in B. licheni...

Bacillus licheniformis SVD1 exhibited highest production of three different polysaccharides when sucrose was used as the carbon source for polysaccharide production and yeast extract was used as the nitrogen source. Polysaccharides were characterized using size exclusion chromatography (SEC), thin layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography with...

Organophosphate (OP) and carbamate (CP) pesticides act by the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). This enables the use of this enzyme for the detection of these pesticides in the environment. While many studies have looked at the effect of single pesticides on AChE, the effect of mixtures of pesticides still requires extensive investigation....

Total coliforms are a group of bacteria found in high numbers in mammalian intestines; hence their presence in water indicates the possible contamination with faecal material. Total and faecal coliform counts were monitored over a period of 18 months using mFC, m-Endo and CM1046 media together with enzymatic assays on 215 environmental water sample...

The synergistic interaction between various hemi/cellulolytic enzymes has become more important in order to achieve effective and optimal degradation of complex lignocellulose substrates for biofuel production. This study investigated the synergistic effect of three enzymes endoglucanase (EngE), mannanase (ManA) and xylanase (XynA) on the degradati...

Cellulose and hemicellulose account for a large portion of the world's plant biomass. In nature, these polysaccharides are intertwined, forming complex materials that require multiple enzymes to degrade them. Multi-enzyme complexes (MECs) consist of a number of enzymes working in close proximity and synergistically to degrade complex substrates wit...

Sugar beet pulp (SBP) is a waste product from the sugar beet industry and could be used as a potential biomass feedstock for second generation biofuel technology. Pretreatment of SBP with 'slake lime' (calcium hydroxide) was investigated using a 2(3) factorial design and the factors examined included lime loading, temperature and time. The pretreat...

In the production of biofuel from lignocellulose biomass, particularly in the case of consolidated bioprocessing where the saccharification and fermentation steps take place within the same bioreactor, many compounds may be present that could affect the enzymes within such a bioreactor. This study examined the effect of ethanol, butanol, propanol,...

Mutation and immobilization techniques were applied to uridine phosphorylase (UP) from Escherichia coli in order to enhance its thermal stability and hence productivity in a biocatalytic reaction. UP was evolved by iterative saturation mutagenesis. Compared to the wild type enzyme, which had a temperature optimum of 40 °C and a half-life of 9.89 h...

This aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ammonium hydroxide (NH(4)OH) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) pre-treatment on the digestibility of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) by hemicellulase action. It was found that pre-treatment of SCB with NH(4)OH removed a larger percentage of the SCB lignin and effectively increased SCB digestibility 13.13 fo...

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenase 1A (CYP1A) is induced by several planar toxic compounds, for example, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the induction of this protein is often measured in terms of CYP1A-mediated 7-ethoxyresorufin- O -deethylase (EROD) activity. This study was aimed at developing this assay in the Cape hake species Merluccius cape...

Pesticides are released intentionally into the environment and, through various processes, contaminate the environment. Three of the main classes of pesticides that pose a serious problem are organochlorines, organophosphates and carbamates. While pesticides are associated with many health effects, there is a lack of monitoring data on these contam...