Nicolescu Cristina Mihaela, Bumbac Marius, Buruleanu Claudia Lavinia, Popescu Elena Corina, Stanescu Sorina Geanina, Georgescu Andreea Antonia, Toma Siramona Maria
Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Science and Technology, Valahia University of Targoviste, 130004 Targoviste, Romania.
Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Valahia University of Targoviste, 130004 Targoviste, Romania.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Mar 20;15(6):1539. doi: 10.3390/polym15061539.
Plants, animals, bacteria, and food waste are subjects of intensive research, as they are biological sources for the production of biopolymers. The topic links to global challenges related to the extended life cycle of products, and circular economy objectives. A severe and well-known threat to the environment, the non-biodegradability of plastics obliges different stakeholders to find legislative and technical solutions for producing valuable polymers which are biodegradable and also exhibit better characteristics for packaging products. Microorganisms are recognized nowadays as exciting sources for the production of biopolymers with applications in the food industry, package production, and several other fields. Ubiquitous organisms, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are well studied for the production of exopolysaccharides (EPS), but much less as producers of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Based on their good biodegradability feature, as well as the possibility to be obtained from cheap biomass, PLA and PHAs polymers currently receive increased attention from both research and industry. The present review aims to provide an overview of LAB strains' characteristics that render them candidates for the biosynthesis of EPS, PLA, and PHAs, respectively. Further, the biopolymers' features are described in correlation with their application in different food industry fields and for food packaging. Having in view that the production costs of the polymers constitute their major drawback, alternative solutions of biosynthesis in economic terms are discussed.
植物、动物、细菌和食物残渣都是深入研究的对象,因为它们是生产生物聚合物的生物来源。该主题与产品延长生命周期相关的全球挑战以及循环经济目标相关联。塑料的不可生物降解性是对环境的一个严重且众所周知的威胁,这迫使不同的利益相关者寻找立法和技术解决方案,以生产可生物降解且在包装产品方面具有更好特性的有价值聚合物。如今,微生物被认为是生产生物聚合物的令人兴奋的来源,这些生物聚合物应用于食品工业、包装生产和其他几个领域。乳酸菌(LAB)作为无处不在的生物体,在生产胞外多糖(EPS)方面已得到充分研究,但作为聚乳酸(PLA)和聚羟基脂肪酸酯(PHA)的生产者则研究较少。基于其良好的生物降解特性以及从廉价生物质中获取的可能性,PLA和PHA聚合物目前受到了研究界和工业界越来越多的关注。本综述旨在概述乳酸菌菌株分别作为EPS、PLA和PHA生物合成候选者的特性。此外,还描述了生物聚合物的特性及其在不同食品工业领域和食品包装中的应用。鉴于聚合物的生产成本是其主要缺点,因此从经济角度讨论了生物合成的替代解决方案。