Lignocellulosic Moringa oleifera bark enabled biofabrication of MgO nanocatalyst: Application in developing temperature tolerance fungal cellulase cocktail

The desirable characteristics of the hydrolytic enzymes for cellulose digestion include high catalytic activity and stress resistance ability under diverse condition during the process of bioconversion. In this view, for enhancing the thermal stability and functional specificity of enzymes, nanomaterials offer enormous potential. The waste bark of the Moringa plant, which is found to be rich in phytochemicals, has been used to synthesize MgO nanoparticles (MgO NPs) in the current study using an environmentally friendly and economical process. The newly synthesized MgO NPs has been characterized through various tools that included XRD, FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, SEM and TEM to evaluate physicochemical properties. Thereafter, impact of this phytochemically synthesized MgO NPs has been analyzed on the thermal stability and efficiency of the raw fungal cellulases. The different enzyme components demonstrated elevated thermal stability, such as filter paper activity (FPA) at 60 °C for 6.5 h, β-glucosidase (BGL) activity at 6.0 h, and endoglucanase (EG) activity at 50 °C for 4.0 h at a 20 mg concentration of MgO NPs. Such an improved nanomaterials assisted thermal efficiency of the enzyme systems can be further explored for numerous cellulase-enabled industrial purposes.