Microbial Hydrocolloids

Introduction

There are three distinct sources of microbial colloids, extracellular, intercellular and intracellular, and they can play a central role in all organisms in various forms. Compared with synthetic colloids, microbial colloids derived from natural sources are safe and environmentally friendly, and are favored by more researchers. Alfa Chemistry provides microbial hydrocolloids for scientific research, food industry, medicine, pharmaceutical, cosmetic or petroleum industry, etc. Our products include xanthan gum, dextran, gellan gum, curdlan, bacterial alginate, Amylopectin, bacterial cellulose, etc. More product information can be found in our product list.

Fig.1 Strategy for in vivo generation of modified polysaccharides.^[2]

Research and Development

The structural complexity of microbial hydrocolloids determines their functional diversity, which further determines the richness and exploitability of application fields. Alfa Chemistry's research on microbial polysaccharides can be divided into three directions:

1. Obtaining microbial colloid materials from new microorganisms.
2. Compounding and modifying microbial hydrocolloids with other materials into structured materials, such as nanoparticles, scaffolds or hydrogels, etc. For example, microbial colloid-based nanocomposites such as magnetite(Fe₃O₄)-dextran have been successfully applied in bioseparation and purification, imaging, cancer hyperthermia, drug delivery, etc.
3. Improvement of microbial hydrocolloids extraction and purification process, reducing production costs, increasing regional availability, and thus expanding commercial scale.

Fig.2 Future perspective of biosorption realized through: (a) nanosizing polysaccharides; and (b) integrating polysaccharides with nanoparticles (NPs) forming polysaccharide nanocomposites.^[3]

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The needs of customers are the inexhaustible driving force for Alfa Chemistry to create new products. We can provide a variety of microbial hydrocolloids and help customers expand the application fields of hydrocolloids.

References

1. M. Shanmugam, R.G. Abirami. Microbial Polysaccharides - Chemistry and Applications. Journal of Biologically Active Products from Nature. 2019.
2. Wen, Yi, et al. Remodeling bacterial polysaccharides by metabolic pathway engineering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2009.
3. Muthu Manikandan, et al. Exploiting Microbial Polysaccharides for Biosorption of Trace Elements in Aqueous Environments—Scope for Expansion via Nanomaterial Intervention. Polymers. 2017.

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