Synthesis and Characterization of Bacterial Cellulose from Citrus-Based Sustainable Resources

Vasiliki Andritsou; Eduardo M de Melo; Erminda Tsouko; Dimitrios Ladakis; Sofia Maragkoudaki; Apostolis A Koutinas; Avtar S Matharu

doi:10.1021/acsomega.8b01315

Synthesis and Characterization of Bacterial Cellulose from Citrus-Based Sustainable Resources

ACS Omega. 2018 Aug 31;3(8):10365-10373. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.8b01315.

Authors

Vasiliki Andritsou¹, Eduardo M de Melo², Erminda Tsouko¹, Dimitrios Ladakis¹, Sofia Maragkoudaki¹, Apostolis A Koutinas¹, Avtar S Matharu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 118 55 Athens, Greece.
² Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, Y010 5DD York, U.K.

Abstract

Citrus juices from whole oranges and grapefruits (discarded from open market) and aqueous extracts from citrus processing waste (mainly peels) were used for bacterial cellulose production by Komagataeibacter sucrofermentans DSM 15973. Grapefruit and orange juices yielded higher bacterial cellulose concentration (6.7 and 6.1 g/L, respectively) than lemon, grapefruit, and orange peels aqueous extracts (5.2, 5.0, and 2.9 g/L, respectively). Compared to the cellulosic fraction isolated from depectinated orange peel, bacterial cellulose produced from orange peel aqueous extract presented improved water-holding capacity (26.5 g water/g, 3-fold higher), degree of polymerization (up to 6-fold higher), and crystallinity index (35-86% depending on the method used). The presence of absorption bands at 3240 and 3270 cm^-1 in the IR spectrum of bacterial cellulose indicated that the bacterial strain K. sucrofermentans synthesizes both I_α and I_β cellulose types, whereas the signals in the ¹³C NMR spectrum demonstrated that I_α cellulose is the dominant type.