Ricerc@Sapienza

Olive mill wastewater (OMW) was supplied to Scenedesmus sp. cultures to simultaneously achieve biomass production and wastewater biodegradation. Two OMW supply strategies were implemented to prevent the reduced growth performances that are attained, compared to photoautotrophic cultivation, when OMW is supplied at the beginning of cultivation (batch strategy). A fed-batch strategy including the gradual OMW supply yielded a biomass production equal to 0.86 g/L, while 1.4 g/L was attained by a two-stage strategy including OMW addition during nitrogen-starvation.

BACKGROUND: Mixotrophic and heterotrophic growth of microalgae through biodegradation of olive mill wastewaters (OMW) is a promising strategy to improve the economic viability of microalgae production processes. However, OMW are characterized by an elevated phenols content, which makes their treatment by biological processes difficult. In this work, the influence of OMW phenols on microalgae growth was investigated by using the phenols extracted with a resin from OMW.

Olive oil production generates high amounts of liquid and solid wastes. For a long time, such complex matrices were considered only as an environmental issue, due to their polluting properties. On the other hand, olive mill wastes (OMWs) exert a positive effect on plant growth when applied to soil due to the high content of organic matter and mineral nutrients. Moreover, OMWs also exhibit antimicrobial activity and protective properties against plant pathogens possibly due to the presence of bioactive molecules including phenols and polysaccharides.

In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the ferric uptake regulator (Fur) protein controls both metabolism and virulence in response to iron availability. Differently from other bacteria, attempts to obtain fur deletion mutants of P. aeruginosa failed, leading to the assumption that Fur is an essential protein in this bacterium. By investigating a P. aeruginosa conditional fur mutant, we demonstrate that Fur is not essential for P. aeruginosa growth in liquid media, biofilm formation, and pathogenicity in an insect model of infection.

Pomegranate peel is a natural source of phenolics, claimed to possess healing properties, among which are antioxidant and antidiabetic. In the present study, an ethyl acetate extract, obtained by Soxhlet from the peel of Dente di Cavallo DC2 pomegranate (PGE) and characterized to contain 4% w/w of ellagic acid, has been evaluated for its hypoglycemic, antiglycation, and antioxidative cytoprotective properties, in order to provide possible evidence for future nutraceutical applications.