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In biotechnology we address the production of
microbial biopolymers and enzymes for applications in the food,
pharmaceutical, cosmetic, textile, pulp and paper industries and also to
wastewater treatment. Exopolysaccharides from microorganisms have
biological and pharmacological activities, including antitumor activity.
Enzymes produced by fungus have oxidative properties presenting a great
potential as biocatalysts in oxidative processes.
Antibiotics
The production of pharmaceutical and medium-sized biochemicals customarily
involves liquid solvents for reaction, separation, and formulation. Most
synthetic pharmaceuticals are medium sized molecules typically composed of
several interlinked aromatic cores and multiple substituents containing
heteroatoms N, P, O, S and F or Cl. Due to presence of the aromatic
delocalized π-electrons
and the electronegative heteroatoms, the molecules are highly polarizable
and thus liable to a variety of specific interactions with polar solvents,
e.g., protonation, hydrogen bonding, specific solvation etc. Furthermore,
they are conformally flexible, which may affect their reactivity and
solvation. Although molecular simulation is developing, solvent selection has traditionally
been viewed as essentially a thermodynamic problem formulated in terms of
thermodynamic phase equilibrium criteria, commonly been based on experience
and empirical descriptions of experimental results.
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