China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Biotechnology: Tuning Nanoscale Bio-systems
Published in Paula V. Messina, Luciano A. Benedini, Damián Placente, Tomorrow’s Healthcare by Nano-sized Approaches, 2020
Paula V. Messina, Luciano A. Benedini, Damián Placente
Even though low-alkaloid tobacco cultivars are available, attention has turned to other leafy crops for pharmaceutical production (Fischer et al. 2004, Obembe et al. 2011, Fu et al. 2015). These crops include lettuce, which has been used for clinical trials with a hepatitis B virus subunit vaccine (Walmsley and Arntzen 2000), and alfalfa, which is being promoted as a platform system by Medicago Inc. (funded in 1997 Quebec, Canada, http://www.medicago.com/). This Canadian biotech company has isolated novel promoters that allow high-level protein expression in alfalfa leaves, and it has focussed on the early part of the production pipeline by developing alfalfa cell-culture and transient-expression technology. Advantages of alfalfa include its high biomass yield and the fact that it is a perennial plant that fixes its own nitrogen. A strong advantage of alfalfa for pharmaceutical production is the fact that glycoproteins synthesised in alfalfa leaves tend to have homogeneous glycan structures, which is important for batch-to-batch consistency. Additionally, expression in vegetative organs, such as the leaf could affect growth and development of the particular plant; for example, alfalfa is a feed crop and its leaves contain large amounts of oxalic acid, which might interfere with processing. Furthermore, proteins that are expressed in leaves tend to be unstable, which means the harvested material has a limited shelf life and must be desiccated, or frozen or processed immediately after harvest.
Medicago sativa L.) as a Feedstock for Production of Ethanol and Other Bioproducts
Published in Shelley Minteer, Alcoholic Fuels, 2016
Deborah A. Samac, Hans-Joachim G. Jung, JoAnn F. S. Lamb
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) has considerable potential as a feedstock for production of fuels, feed, and industrial materials. However, unlike other major field crops such as corn and soybeans, which are commonly refined for production of fuel and industrial materials, refining of alfalfa remains undeveloped. Instead, alfalfa is primarily processed and used on-farm in the form of dried hay, silage, and fresh forage known as “greenchop,” or is grazed by animals in pastures. In many countries, including the United States, alfalfa is used as a basic component in feeding programs for dairy cattle and is an important feed for beef cattle, horses, sheep, and other livestock. Known as the “Queen of the Forages,” alfalfa provides highly nutritious forage in terms of protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals for ruminant animals. If alfalfa is developed to its full potential as a feedstock for biorefining, a major shift may occur in the manner in which alfalfa is produced and used for feeding farm animals.
Characterization of emissions from burning methyl-bromide-treated crop biomass
Published in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2022
Johanna Aurell, Brian Gullett, Dirk Helder, Robert Elleman
Some of the farmers have planted alfalfa for animal feed but because of its deep root structure it has the ability to remove inorganic bromide from the soil and thus help clean the soil. Other crops grown on the fields such as potatoes, barley grain and wheat grain have low levels of inorganic bromide and can safely enter the food market because they have low inorganic bromide residues. There has been an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 Mton bales of barley straw, wheat straw and alfalfa hay that has needed to be disposed of due to high concentrations of inorganic bromide residues. Much of the hay has been sent to landfills. Open field burning, a common practice used in the Northwest to prepare fields for subsequent planting (McCarty et al. 2009), was proposed as a method to remove crop residues. Agriculture burning is a common practice in Idaho and the smoke and emissions are closely monitored and controlled by the state department of agriculture. Presumably the Br and Cl constituents would end up partitioned to the emissions or remaining ash from burning the contaminated plant material. To determine the fate of these halogens an open burn test facility was used to simulate the field burn scenario. Pesticide-treated and -untreated hay residues were burned, and the ash residues and emissions were characterized and compared to better inform decisions regarding treatment options. This information gleaned from this study has provided valuable information as to whether burning this MeBr treated would be safe for the environment, farm workers and neighbors living close to the burn site.
Phytostabilization of polymetallic contaminated soil using Medicago sativa L. in combination with powdered marble: Sustainable rehabilitation
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2018
Laila Midhat, Naaila Ouazzani, Abdessamed Hejjaj, Javier Bayo, Laila Mandi
Immobilization techniques combining amendments and phytoremediation (phytoextraction or phytostabilization) for soil remediation commonly use tolerant and hyperaccumulator plants. The choice of plant depends on the type and degree of contamination, as well as the remediation objectives (González et al.2016). Bioremediation using tolerant and hyperaccumulator plants is cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and technically feasible. A tolerant plant used as a test plant in stabilizing acidic mine tailings is alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Alfalfa is suitable as it can survive well under detrimental conditions such as drought, high levels of contamination, and low temperatures. It can also efficiently fix nitrogen, which is an important consideration in the revegetation of nutrient deficient mine dumps. The capacity of M. sativa L. for phytostabilization of metals in mine tailings has been previously reported by several researchers (Al-Rashdi and Sulaiman 2013; Chen et al.2015; Mingorance et al.2016).
Morphological effect of dichloromethane on alfalfa (Medicago sativa) cultivated in soil amended with fertilizer manures
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2021
Sana Dardouri, Asma Jedidi, Sabrine Mejri, Sabrine Hattab, Jalila Sghaier
In fact, alfalfa (Medicago sativa L) was applied for soil phytoremediation of both inorganic (Bonfranceschi et al. 2009; Vamerali et al. 2011; Zaefarian et al. 2013, Marchand et al., 2016) and organic pollutants (Wei and Pan 2010; Hechmi et al. 2014; Marchand et al. 2016), such as heavy metals (Zaefarian et al. 2013; Marchand et al. 2016), landfill leachate (Yang et al. 2017). This plant has a root framework appropriate for the petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC) rhizodegradation (Wang et al. 2012) and can add to trace elements (TE) phytostabilisation (Zribi et al. 2015). Alfalfa is widely developed as feedstock for its high shoot yield and life span (Campanelli et al. 2013).