The document discusses the rise of green technology in India, particularly in the production of microbial polysaccharides like hyaluronic acid, pullulan, and xanthan gum. These biopolymers have wide applications across pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and cosmetic industries, with growing markets driven by increased awareness and demand. The article highlights opportunities for India to leverage its educated workforce and entrepreneurial spirit to industrialize these technologies and address environmental concerns.

1. 58 • April 2013 Chemical Engineering World
CEW Features
Green technology is quickly gaining favour in many industries across the globe. In
this article, Dr Shankar M Singh, (PhD), General Manager, Biotech Center, Kumar
Organic Products Ltd, discusses how some of the products can be produced using
green technology.
Microbial Polysaccharide: Green Technology
Prospects for India
I
ndia can take up the mantle of green
technology because it is an emerging
market and several specific technologies
do not require large scale investments. The
focus from both a public policy as well as
private investment should be on identifying
and providing investment capital as well
as ensuring that requisite technical and
intellectual resources are available in these
areas in the years to come. In the case
of a developing country like India, with a
highly populated educated class as well
as a vibrant and entrepreneurial private
sector, this can serve as a great opportunity
and help kick start several sectors in the
economy. Several of these specific areas
and products are discussed in the article
with specific focus on Hyaluronic Acid,
Pullulan and Xanthan Gum.
Microorganisms under proper media culture
conditions secrete mucoid products which
have high molecular weight substances.
Most of the extracellular substances
secreted by microorganism are called
polysaccharides. These polysaccharides
have been of a great interest because of
their role as virulence factors in bacteria that
cause invasive infections. Green Technology
processes for producing the majority of
these exopolysaccharides have a wide
range of applications in pharmaceutical,
nutraceutical and cosmeceutical industries.
Hyaluronic Acid, Pullulan and Xanthan Gum,
which are produced by green technology,
have found applications in health, food
and cosmetic field and its applications
keep increasing every year. This article will
briefly focus on the industrialisation and
applications of three polysaccharides.
Hyaluronic Acid (HA) is a naturally
occurring biopolymer, which has important
biological functions in bacteria, animals,
and human. It is found in most connective
tissues particularly in synovial fluid, skin,
and vitreous fluid of eye, umbilical cords
and chicken combs. Hyaluronic acid was
discovered in 1934 by Karl Meyer and John
Palmer at Columbia University, New York.
The first commercial application of HA was a
few years later, in 1942, when Endre Balazs
applied for a patent to use it as a substitute
for egg whites in bakery products. Since then,
in the past three decades, the therapeutic
and aesthetic uses of hyaluronic acid have
been extended to three main categories ie,
anti-aging, nutritional supplements and in
medical applications.
Animal sources provide higher molecular
weight (1.2-12 MDa) Hyaluronic Acid.
However, HA from the rooster comb-
based extraction process is facing
growing criticism due to the use of
animal-derived products for biomedical
and pharmaceutical applications. Hence,
microbial fermentation has emerged as a
new green technology for the production of
HA which gives molecular weight (1MDa -
3.5 MDa). The bacterial production of HA
involving a Streptococcus zooepidemicus
strain was first described in 1989, giving
rise to the first commercialisation of
fermented HA. Nowadays, hyaluronic acid
(HA) production from the green bacterial
technology is the main source of HA in
the market. Recently, the availability of
Hyaluronic form recombinant bacterial
strain technology has also provided
hyaluronic acid for medical uses.
The current worldwide market for HA for the
treatment of joint pain is estimated to be
over USD 1 billion USD. With the population
of patients with knee osteoarthritis
increasing by 26 per cent from 15 million
USD in 2000 to 19 million USD in 2010, the
demand for viscosupplements is expected
to escalate. In the US, the first single-
injection HA viscosupplementation product,
Synvisc, was approved in 1997 after
which other viscosupplements, Supartz,
Orthovis, Hyalgan and Euflexxa also
gained rapid acceptance by patients and
physicians because of their convenience
and safety profiles. The European HA
viscosupplementation market is shifting
toward shorter treatment regimens,
and the convenience of undergoing this
procedure will continue to attract more
patients through 2013. In the Asia Pacific,
the HA viscosupplementation market will
be favourably affected by both the aging
and physically active demographics,
as well as rising awareness of the
treatmentÊs benefits among physicians and
patients. Cross-linked Hyaluronic acids
as viscosupplements are gaining more
preference over hyaluronic acid due to
their better bio-compatibility.
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2. April 2013 • 59Chemical Engineering World
CEWFeatures
clinical, and health care uses. Pullulan
can be used in pharmaceutical coatings,
including sustained-release formulations. As
binder and agglomerator, it is widely used
is cosmetic industry. Oral care products
based on pullulan films have recently been
commercialised. In addition, pullulan and its
derivatives have photographic, lithographic,
andelectronicapplications.Anotheremerging
market for pullulan may be in the formulation
of capsules for dietary supplements and
pharmaceuticals. Increased demand for
pullulan could justify expanded production,
resulting in new viable market niches for this
unique biopolymer.
Although pullulan is efficiently produced
by fermentation of relatively inexpensive
substrates, it currently sells for
approximately three times the price of other
microbial gums produced by fermentation
such as dextran or xanthan. Technical
improvements in pullulan production, such
as engineering innovations, could further
bacterium Xanthomonas campestris and has
been extensively studied due to its properties
which would allow it to supplement other
known natural and synthetic water-soluble
gums. Substantial commercial production of
this product began in the early 1964. Today,
there are a number of companies which are
producing this Gum.
The toxicological and safety properties of
xanthan gum for food and pharmaceutical
applications have been extensively studied.
Xanthan is non-toxic and does not inhibit
growth. It is non-sensitising and does not
cause skin or eye irritation. On this basis,
Xanthan has been approved by the FDA
as generally recognised as safe (GRAS)
product for use in food as an additive
without any specific quantity limitations. In
1980, the European Economic Community
also approved Xanthan Gum to the food
emulsifier/stabiliser list.
Xanthan gum has been used in a wide
variety of foods for a number of important
reasons, including emulsion stabilisation,
temperature stability, compatibility with
food ingredients, and its pseudo-plastic
rheological properties. Because of its
properties in thickening aqueous solutions,
as a dispersing agent, and stabiliser of
emulsions and suspensions, xanthan gum
is used in pharmaceutical formulations,
cosmetics, and agricultural products. It
is used in textile printing pastes, ceramic
glazes, slurry explosive formulations, and
rust removers. High viscosity of solutions
and water solubility of the polymer have
created important applications for Xanthan
Gum in the petroleum industry where it
is commonly used in drilling fluids and in
enhanced oil recovery processes.
Ever-growing and emerging trends for the
production of chemical/bio-products using
the green engineering technologies via the
use bacteria and substances available in
nature are becoming the technologies of
future. Biotechnology still has a lot to offer to
the public and there is a great need to help
the public understand its benefits. Not only
do these technologies have the potential
to improve human health, cosmetic, and
food products, they also have significant
potential to reduce environmental pollution
and contamination in the earth soil and can
also contribute to an overall reduction in
global warming.
The global market for dermal fillers is also
booming, at people spending approximately
759 million USD during 2009. Nowadays,
there are almost 100 different dermal fillers
on the market, and about half of them
are based on HA. American Society for
Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports that about
23,000 dermatologists, plastic surgeons,
and cosmetic surgeons in the US performed
more than 11.8 million surgical and non-
surgical cosmetic surgery procedures in
2004, generating USD 12.5 billion USD in
fees. In the US, the dermal filler market is
expanding at an annual rate of more than
25 per cent through 2011 and 20 per cent
throughout the rest of the world, reaching
USD 1.5 billion in global sales. The launch
of Restylane, with NASHA technology (non-
animal cross-linked HA) has ushered in a
new era in dermal enhancement. This filler
addresses many of the issues with traditional
bovine collagen fillers, namely shelf life,
skin testing, and its animal origin. There
are number of cross-lined HA, available
in market. The unique viscoelastic nature
of HA along with its biocompatibility and
non-immunogenicity has led to its use in a
number of clinical applications, such as a
surgical aid in eye surgery and facilitation in
healing and regeneration of surgical wounds.
Pullulan is a natural polysaccharide
produced extracellularly by the fungal
species and is commercially prepared by a
non-pathogenic and non-toxigenic strain of
organism via a green technology. Molecular
Hyaluronic Acid (HA) is a naturally occurring biopolymer, which has
important biological functions in bacteria, animals, and human. It is
found in most connective tissues particularly in synovial fluid, skin,
and vitreous fluid of eye, umbilical cords and chicken combs.
weight of Pullulan ranges from 50KDa to
500KDa. Pullulan is generally recognised
as safe (GRAS) for use in food by Food and
Drug Administration (FDA). Commercial
production of pullulan began in 1976 in
Japan however, now many countries are
manufacturing it using green technology.
Pullulan has unique properties and is
highly water soluble. It is non-toxic,
non-immunogenic, bio-compatible and
inert in nature and has found application
in pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic
industries. Pullulan and its derivatives
have many potential pharmaceutical,
reduce the cost of production. Costs
may also be high due in large extent to
the modest production scale of pullulan.
Production levels have been fairly stable
for a number of years, with specialty food
applications as a major market. The recent
commercialisation of pullulan-based oral,
pharma and cosmetic care products is very
encouraging for the future of pullulan.
Xanthan gum is a natural polysaccharide
and an important industrial biopolymer. It
was discovered in the 1950s at the Northern
Regional Research Laboratories in the USA.
The polysaccharide is produced by the
250 billion
USD by 2016.
Growing environmental concerns and
increasing demands from end-use
sectors are expected to increase the
global market for microbial products
to about
16.
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