Beyond Enzyme Production: Solid State Fermentation (SSF) as an Alternative Approach to Produce Antioxidant Polysaccharides

Abstract

Solid state fermentation (SSF) is a sustainable process that uses low amounts of water and transforms plant-based agro-industrial residues into valuable products such as enzymes, biofuels, nanoparticles and other bioactive compounds. Many fungal species can be used in SSF because of their low requirements of water, O2 and light. During SSF, plant-based wastes rich in soluble and insoluble fiber are utilized by lignocellulolytic fungi that have enzymes such as lignases, celullases or hemicelullases that break fiber hard structure. During the hydrolysis of lignin, some phenolic compounds are released but fungi also synthetize bioactive compounds such as mycophenolic acid, dicerandrol C, phenylacetates, anthraquinones, benzofurans and alkenyl phenols that have health beneficial effects such as antitumoral, antimicrobial, antioxidant and antiviral activities. Another important group of compounds synthetized by fungi during SSF are polysaccharides that also have important health promoting properties. Polysaccharides have antioxidant, antiproliferative and immunomodulatory activities as well as prebiotic effects. Fungal SSF has also proved to be a process which can release high contents of phenolics and it also increases the bioactivity of these compounds.

Comparison between Fermentation and Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction: Which Is the Most Efficient Method to Obtain Antioxidant Polyphenols from Sambucus nigra and Punica granatum Fruits?

“…In addition, the recent combination of an enzymatic pretreatment with microbial fermentation has been employed for the extraction of plant materials, including fruit peels, generating rich-polyphenolic products [64,65]. As such, this is a new extraction method that is being applied by several industries [33,35,66]. However, this method might also induce structural changes in polyphenols, increasing the rate of phenolics losses, and affecting their biological activities [33,35,66].…”

A Comprehensive Review on Valorization of Agro-Food Industrial Residues by Solid-State Fermentation

“…Actinomycetes such as Streptomyces sp. are resistant to extreme conditions and can colonize the substrate abundantly; thus, they are also used in SSF [ 98 , 99 ].…”

The Application of Solid State Fermentation for Obtaining Substances Useful in Healthcare

“…Solid state fermentation (SSF) is a process during which microorganisms (in the presence of small amounts of water) transform agro-industrial waste into valuable compounds [1]. Based on the literature research, wheat bran was commonly used for those processes ( Table 1).…”