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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Microbial and Chemical Food Safety » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #264112
Title: Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of lignin from residue of corn stover to ethanol production

Author
item DONG, XIN - University Of Delaware
item DONG, MEIDUI - University Of Delaware
item LU, YINGJIAN - University Of Delaware
item TURLEY, ALEXANDRA - University Of Delaware
item Jin, Zhonglin
item WU, CHANGQING - University Of Delaware

Submitted to: Industrial Crops and Products
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/3/2011
Publication Date: 11/1/2011
Citation: Dong, X., Dong, M., Lu, Y., Turley, A., Jin, Z.T., Wu, C. 2011. Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of lignin from residue of corn stover to ethanol production. Industrial Crops and Products. 34(3):1629-1634.

Interpretive Summary: Identifying and developing new antimicrobial materials is one of the important approaches to development of antimicrobial packaging for food safety. Antimicrobial activities of lignin extracted from residues generated during ethanol production were investigated in this study. The extracts exhibited antimicrobial activities against pathogenic bacteria and yeast. Lignin byproducts showed the potential for the application in antimicrobial packaging.

Technical Abstract: To improve the economic viability of the biofuel production from biomass resource, a value-added lignin byproduct from this process is increasingly interested. Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of lignin extracted from residue of corn stover to ethanol production were investigated. The lignin extracts exhibited strong antioxidant activities in hydrophilic oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay and Folin–Ciocalteu test. The extracts also exhibited antimicrobial activities against Gram-positive bacteria (Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus) and yeast (Candida lipolytica), but not Gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Enteritidis) or bacteriophage MS2. Different extraction conditions (temperature and residue/solvent ratio) affected the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of lignin extracts. Generally, the bioactivities of lignin extracts were consistent with FTIR analysis results. Lignin byproducts showed the potential for their antioxidant and antimicrobial application.