Revista de bioingeniería y ciencia biomédica

It is predicted that by 2050, the rapid increase in population and concurrent urbanisation will deplete clean water supplies. Domestic wastewater (DWW) contains inorganic and organic constituents that are toxic to aquatic organisms. Traditional remediation methods (physical, chemical and biological) can be used on-site or off-site to purify polluted domestic water (activated sludge, built-wetlands, stabilisation ponds, trickling filters and membrane bioreactors) and each has advantages and disadvantages. Biosorption of toxic chemicals and nutrients by microorganisms, bacteria (microbe-mediated remediation), fungi (mycoremediation) and algae (phycoremediation) has shown promising results. The type of waste, its concentration, heterogeneity level and the percentage of clean-up required, as well as the feasibility of the clean-up technique and its efficiency, practicability, operational difficulties, environmental impact and treatment costs, are all factors to consider.

The current focus of research is on improving the bioaccessibility of functional components bound to cereal bran cell walls. Phenolic acids, biopeptides, dietary fibre and novel carbohydrates are the main bioactive components in cereal bran that have significant biological activities. Their bioaccessibility is limited due to the bound form in which these bioactive compounds exist in the bran matrix. The purpose of this paper is to thoroughly examine the functionality of an integrated technology that consists of bran substrate pretreatment techniques followed by fermentation bioprocesses to improve the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of the functional components. The integration of specific physical, chemical and biological pretreatments with fermentation strategies applied to previously-pretreated cereal bran substrate provides a theoretical foundation for the high-value utilisation of cereal bran and the development of related products.