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Carbohydrate recognition is established as a property of lectins and implicated in many functions including immunity and defense against pathogens. Many lectins are characterized and proposed for various applications owing to the above said recognition. The crystal structure of a lectin from Pleurotus ostreatus has been determined and shown to be calcium dependent. The overall structure is a tandem repeat of two β-jelly roll domains, a new fold for lectins. The calcium dependence of sugar binding is analyzed in-detail through isothermal titration calorimetry. The serendipitous observation of malonate and glycerol, the intentional N-Acetyl-D-galactosamine, D-Galactose and L-Rhamnose binding to Pleurotus ostreatus lectin by Ca2+ coordination revealed that the binding site is promiscuous. Among these sugars, Rhamnose binding found to be thermodynamically most favourable. LY3537982 molecular weight In all these structures, a vicinal diol motif, one at axial and the other at equatorial positions could be established as a specific requirement for binding. Interestingly, when compared with other calcium mediated lectin structures; this geometric requirement is found conserved. This observation could lead to the conclusion that lectins are not ‘molecule specific’ but ‘geometry specific’ so that any molecule not necessarily a sugar may be recognized by this lectin if the geometry exists. The Coats-Redfern method is commonly used to calculate the activation energy of the thermal degradation from a single non-isothermal thermogravimetric curve since its first proposal in 1964. This paper represents the accurate expressions, sound derivation process and proper usage of the Coats-Redfern equations, based on the critique into the Coats-Redfern’s original article, Djalal Trache’s incorrect comments on Reza Arjmandi et al.’s article, and the flaw in Reza Arjmandi et al.’s work per se. The need for starch to meet the ever-increasing industrial applications and its inherent problems in the native state have led to researches into unconventional starch sources and starch modifications, respectively. In this study, starch was isolated from African breadfruit kernels and modified to produce acetylated, AC, oxidized, OX, and acid-thinned, AT, starches. The effects of modifications on the native starch, NA, were examined through physicochemical, pasting, morphological and thermal properties. Modifications caused significant (p  less then .05) reductions in the NA starch moisture, ash, crude protein, crude fat, and crude fibre compositions. Swelling power had direct relationship with increase in temperature. Following modifications, OX starch showed the most significant increase in oil absorption capacity while NA had better water absorption capacity than the modified starches. Acid-thinning significantly improved the gelation and reduced the pasting properties of NA starch. Morphological study using scanning electron micrograph, revealed oblong and oval granules with rough surfaces for all the starches with no significant differences. Thermogravimetry of the starches showed single-step decomposition with increased thermal stability of African breadfruit kernel starch following modifications. DSC study showed that gelatinisation transition temperature of NA reduced following modification. The study showed that modification improved African breadfruit kernel starch properties. Research on the use of bio-based material rather than fossil fuel-based synthetic polymers is of considerable value due to the increasing interest in biodegradable and ecofriendly products. This paper describes an in-depth analysis of the effect of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), a promising nanomaterial filler derived from cellulosic biomass, on the mechanical properties of rubber latex thin sheets. Sheets of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and its bio-based alternative, natural rubber (NR) were tested and compared. Percolation of CNC was studied within the rubber matrices, where the tear strength, water permeability, and water absorption increased due to the formation of a continuous network of CNC within the polymer thin sheets. The rubber nanocomposites were resistant to tear propagation, caused by increased tortuosity along the tear path brought about by CNC dispersion and filler network formation. The CNC reinforcement yielded thin sheets that were much stronger and more durable than their non-reinforced counterparts. Additionally, the increased water uptake of the sheets could aid in the biodegradation of the polymer. Thus, CNC is found to be an excellent functional filler in rubber sheets, where its formation of a percolating network significantly improved their properties. V.In order to obtain the effective antidiabetic polysaccharide derivative, a selenylated polysaccharide (Se-MCPIIa-1), with an average molecular weight (MW) of 4.0038 × 104 Da, was synthesized by reduction of sodium selenite with ascorbic acid in the presence of Momordica polysaccharides (MCPIIa). The selenium (Se) content of Se-MCPIIa-1 was up to 445.0 μg/g, and its average diameter of monodisperse spherical particle size was around 63.78 nm. The morphology and physicochemical properties of Se-MCPIIa-1 were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. The results indicated that Se was conjunct with MCPIIa by esterification. Moreover, the oral administration of Se-MCPIIa-1 showed a gradual normalization in the levels of hypoglyemic test in the STZ-induced diabetic mice. The anti-diabetic effects of Se-MCPIIa-1 in vivo showed that Se-MCPIIa-1 can significantly reduce fasting blood glucose levels and enhance insulin levels as well as antioxidant enzyme activities in diabetic mice with an optimal dosage of 20 mg/kg/body weight. In addition, it was found from histopathological data that Se-MCPIIa-1 could prevent pancreatic islets, liver and kidney damage from diabetes, which suggested that Se-MCPIIa-1 is a promising novel Se supplement and could be applied in the field of food and medicine. Fluorescent nanoprobe with good water dispersibility was synthesized by the coupling of fluorescent 1,8-naphthalimide dye (NANI) as well as biocompatible poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) to cellulose nanocrystals (CNC). FTIR, TGA and XPS analysis confirmed the successful covalent conjugation of NANI and PEG. The rod-like morphology of CNC was generally retained after two-step successive grafting of NANI and PEG. The contact angle and transmittance measurements showed that the grafted PEG brushes improve the hydrophilicity of fluorescent CNC probes and their dispersibility in high-concentration NaCl solutions. The fluorescent CNC probe had good biocompatibility and was successfully used for the bioimaging of Hela cells in physiological environment at high salt concentration. Laser confocal microscopy showed that the fluorescent CNC probe can penetrate the cell membrane and disperse uniformly in the cell with good biocompatibility. The fluorescent CNC probe with nanometer size, strong fluorescence emission and high salt-tolerance possess potential application in biomedical field.