Arunmas, Ekabhop, et al. Bioresource Technology (2025): 132988.
Challenge: The three major bottlenecks in conventional lignin extraction are inefficient lignin-carbohydrate separation, excessive solvent consumption and processing, and inevitable structural damages that impede bioactivity.
Solution: Sodium Xylenesulfonate (SXS) revolutionized accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) in this work by acting as a molecular scalpel selectively cleaving β-O-4 bonds, enabling high-purity extraction (97.61%) at low concentration (10% w/v), and preserving critical phenolic/carboxyl groups for enhanced functionality.
Optimized ASE-SXS Protocol: Load sugarcane bagasse into ASE reactor with 10% SXS solution, extract at 200°C for 3 hours, and recover syringyl-rich lignin with targeted Mw 2,100 Da.
Key Results:
· The SXS-extracted lignin showed significantly higher ABTS and DPPH scavenging values, achieving as high as 1,105.70 and 939.85 mg Trolox equivalent (TE)/g, respectively, which is 3.4× of magnitude higher than that of the conventionally prepared alkaline lignin.
· The SXS-extracted lignin also showed strong antibacterial efficacy, with the minimal inhibitory concentration (MICs) values ranging from 0.156 to 2.5 mg/mL.
· Furthermore, the SXS-extracted lignin also showed an improved selectivity, where it also maintained a better compatibility with probiotics. For example, SXS-extracted lignin was less toxic to Limosilactobacillus reuteri in comparison to alkaline lignin.
Dhayalan, Sreenivasan, et al. AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 2240. No. 1. AIP Publishing LLC, 2020.