Lactic acid is widely used in the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries and has received increased attention for use as a monomer for the production of biodegradable poly(lactic acid). It can be produced by either biotechnological fermentation or chemical synthesis, but the former route has received considerable interest recently, due to environmental concerns and the limited ...

Lactic acid, a naturally occurring multifunctional organic acid, is a valuable industrial chemical used as an acidulant, preservative in the food industry, pharmaceutical, leather, and textile industries, as well as a chemical feedstock. One of the most promising applications of lactic acid is its use for biodegradable and biocompatible lactate polymers, such as polylactic acid. Lactic acid can...

Lactic acid is an intermediate-volume specialty chemical for a wide range of food and industrial applications such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and chemical syntheses. Although lactic acid production has been well documented, improved production parameters that lead to reduced production costs are always of interest in industrial developments. In this study, we describe the production of lacti...

Two response surface methodologies involving central composite designs have been successfully applied to evaluate the effect of cheese whey, corn steep liquor, ammonium sulphate, temperature and pH control on lactic acid fermentation by Lactobacillus sp. LMI8 isolated from cassava flour wastewater. In the first central composite design, corn steep liquor and ammonium sulphate were investigated ...

The production of lactic acid from fossil fuel is now widely accepted as unsustainable due to depleting resources and the accumulation of environmentally hazardous chemicals. Cheap raw material is one of the key inputs to cost effective production of Lactic acid. This paper reviews current research in lactic acid fermentation processes, bio-residue availability in Ghana and potential utilizatio...

A characteristic feature of tumors is high production of lactic acid due to enhanced glycolysis. Here, we show a positive correlation between lactate serum levels and tumor burden in cancer patients and examine the influence of lactic acid on immune functions in vitro. Lactic acid suppressed the proliferation and cytokine production of human cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) up to 95% and led to a...

BACKGROUND Lactic acid is the building block of poly-lactic acid (PLA), a biopolymer that could be set to replace petroleum-based plastics. To make lactic acid production cost-effective, the production process should be carried out at low pH, in low-nutrient media, and with a low-cost carbon source. Yeasts have been engineered to produce high levels of lactic acid at low pH from glucose but not...

Lactic acid is the predominant acid present in the vagina. We evaluated the consequences of lactic acid, at physiological levels present in the vagina, on cytokine responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from 10 individuals in the presence or absence of bacterial lipopolysaccharide. Preincubation of PBMCs in 15 mM lactic acid before the addition of lipopolysaccharide re...

BACKGROUND Efficient conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to optically pure lactic acid is a key challenge for the economical production of biodegradable poly-lactic acid. A recently isolated strain, Thermoanaerobacterium aotearoense SCUT27, is promising as an efficient lactic acid production bacterium from biomass due to its broad substrate specificity. Additionally, its strictly anaerobic an...

BACKGROUND Polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable polymer, has the potential to replace (at least partially) traditional petroleum-based plastics, minimizing "white pollution". However, cost-effective production of optically pure L-lactic acid is needed to achieve the full potential of PLA. Currently, starch-based glucose is used for L-lactic acid fermentation by lactic acid bacteria. Due to it...