Biochemistry

APPLICATIONS OF CARBOHYDRATES FROM

INDUSTRIAL WASTE IN THE LAST 20 YEARS - Review
Andrea Monsalve 1, Laura Reyes 2, Sofía Bárcenas 3 y Mónica Porcell 4
1
Ingeniería química; andreamoch@unisabana.edu.co
2
Ingeniería química; laurareyac@unisabana.edu.co
3
Ingeniería química; paulabagi@unisabana.edu.co
4
Ingeniería química; monicapogo@unisabana.edu.co

Abstract
Nowadays humanity is always looking for a way to optimize and make more environmentally
sustainable different industrial processes. In the last 20 years, the extraction of carbohydrates, more
specifically polysaccharides, from industrial waste have been studied to be reused in the production of
a variety of new products. This review exhibits new applications inside the material´s industry,
pharmaceutical industry and cosmetic industry, as these extractions proved to be biodegradable,
renewable and non-toxic. Inside the material´s industry, the enforcement in the elimination of
pollutants in wastewater is discussed. As well as lignin, biochar, sucrose, latex, starch, cellulose and
3D printing in the creation or improvement of materials. The pharmaceutical industry studied the
extraction of chitosan from shells of crustaceans obtained from sea food restaurants, used in drug
delivery devices. Also, tissue regeneration, vascular repairs or implants and cancer treatments
alternatives from different waste materials. Finally, the application of cyanoflan produced by
Cyanobacteria is studied in the cosmetic´s industry.

Key Words: carbohydrate wastes, polysaccharides, material´s industry, pharmaceutical industry,

cosmetic industry

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 Introduction
Carbohydrates are an important class of biomolecules mainly made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen
atoms [1]. They accomplish a lot of functions inside different organisms and that is why they are very abundant
in nature. Inside our body, carbohydrates are essential in our diet, as they are the primary source of energy for
our brain. They work as energy stores in plants and animals too, like starch and glycogen respectively [2].
Carbohydrates also act as structural materials, lubricants and provide support to cellular elements of tissues
[3]. Some examples are cellulose in plants, peptidoglycans in bacteria and chitin in the exoskeleton of some
microorganisms [4]. Its derivatives are also important, for example, coenzymes for the metabolism and nucleic
acids [5]. On the other hand, they have been widely studied because of their industrial applications. Starch in
baked goods productions, monosaccharides and oligosaccharides as sweeteners, wood pulp in paper industry,
cellulose in the textile industry, as fermenters in the production of alcoholic beverages, antibiotics and
anticoagulants, etc [6]. To understand these industrial uses, the chemical structure of carbohydrates must be
analyzed, as the diverse formations of molecules can be generated from different linking of monosaccharides
as building blocks [7]. They are classified due to their structure. A monosaccharide is the most hydrolyzed
carbohydrate. A disaccharide is a molecule made up of two linked monosaccharides and so on following the
suffixes tri-, tetra-, penta-. Generally, an oligosaccharide describes a molecule that contains 10 to 20
monosaccharides and a polysaccharide more than 20 monosaccharides [8].

Polysaccharides are the most abundant biopolymer and about 99% of them are in plants and vegetables,
consider a major renewable source for different purposes [9]. Currently, polysaccharides are present in food
nutrients, polymeric materials, food additives, biotechnological applications like drug delivery and sustainable
energy production [10]. The most abundant polysaccharides in plants, starch, cellulose, hemicelluloses, inulin
and pectin, have characteristics as emulsifying power, polyelectrolyte, viscoelasticity, biocompatibility,
adherence, stabilizing power, among others [11]. That is why they are usually isolated from waste to be used
in different production processes. They have other characteristics as being biodegradable, water soluble and
non-toxic. Thanks to these properties, polysaccharides have been extracted from different kinds of plants to
evaluate some applications or characteristics. Some interesting examples are the extraction of high molecular
weight polysaccharides from Opuntia ficus-indica use to accelerate re-epithelization in dermal wounds [12];
extraction from mulberry leaves with good antibacterial and antioxidant effects against E.coli, S. aureus and
B. subtilis [13]; extractions from Salvia Chinensis to eliciting blymphocytes and extraction from Lentinus
edodes and Coloriolus versicolor to be tested as anti-genotoxic and anti-tumor in cancer treatments [14]. Apart
from medical applications, there has been studies in engineering and biomaterials. For example, the use of
starch in biodegradable plastic and resins production or microfibrils employed in nano-material science as a
reinforce element in composite material [15].

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 Finally, knowing the current urge for sustainability and the importance of recycling, polysaccharides
recovered from different waste materials can represent a renewable source of energy, biomaterials and food
chemicals. This review is developed around these topic and new alternatives discovered in the last 20 years.

Material´s industry
Carbohydrates have shown great importance in the materials industry. The creation of materials from
carbohydrates, their derivatives or waste has gained great strength in recent years, as the global pollution
created by classic materials and their production process has brought consequences such as the limitation of
natural resources and energy shortages worldwide [16]. For example, biochar is a carbonaceous material
obtained from biomass residues that is currently being used to improve soil fertility allowing for increased
crop productivity [17]. It is also being commonly used in wastewater remediation, which contains abundant
heavy metals such as Cd+2, Pb+2, Zn+2, Ni+2, Cu+2, Fe+3, among many others [18]. The characteristic shared by
all these heavy metals is their high toxicity in nature, as they are indiscriminately discharged into the
environment by different industries, especially in wastewater. The main problem is that they become involved
in the food chain and begin to accumulate in cells, threatening the ecosystem and human life, as the ingestion
of heavy metals has had a negative impact on the functioning of the immune, reproductive, nervous and
gastrointestinal systems [19]. The use of carbohydrate residues in the elimination of pollutants in wastewater
is due to the nature of these molecules, as they are derived from carbohydrates that are synthesized by plants
and animals and acquire the characteristics of their precursors, becoming biodegradable, renewable and non-
toxic. Currently, bioremediation is carried out using nanofibrous structures as their high surface area and ease
of recovery are beneficial in the adsorption of pollutants and photocatalytic activities [20].

Some wastewaters are rich in sulphate and are therefore poor electron donors for the removal of these
inorganic compounds; in order to remove this excess sulphate, electron-donating carbohydrates from potato
planting residues, paper industry and crab shells have been used, however, it has not been possible to obtain
high yields in these procedures as the rate of sulphate reduction in wastewater is affected by the hydrolysis
stage and fermentation conditions, as well as the nature of the carbohydrate being worked [21].

However, during several investigations, water contamination by residues of macromolecules such as

fatty acids, proteins and carbohydrates has also been found, so in order to counteract this environmental
problem, studies have been carried out using rhizospheric bacteria with physiological potential. One study
managed to characterise the potential of 58 strains of Typha dominguensis bacteria, of which 21 were able to

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degrade approximately 36% of disaccharides and hydrolyse 50% of proteins and lipids found in wastewater
[22].

Cellulose is a polymer found easily and abundantly in nature, specifically in the cell wall of plants and
is formed by glucose residues (β1-4) forming a linear structure which can crystallise by Van der Waals forces
and hydrogen bonds [23]. The linearity in the structural chain of cellulose allows it to be used by humans, for
example, in the paper industry. In this industry, cellulose is often obtained from agricultural waste as it does
not harm the food supply and improves the rural economy; however, the most common source of cellulose is
from plant sources, i.e., the felling of trees [24]. Cellulose is used in the paper industry because of its resistance
to mechanical forces, biological degradation, low water solubility and hydrogen bonding of its microfibres
resulting in resistance to acid hydrolysis. However, recent research has developed a new material from this
glucose residue called nanocellulose or nanofibrillated cellulose, which, as its name suggests, consists of an
abundant and renewable fibrous material, which is also currently the subject of studies for the development of
new materials from itself, due to its superior thermal resistance, water retention capacity and nanometric
dimension allowing for greater handling of the material and therefore fewer defects [25].

Currently, chemical modifications of cellulose based on the substitution of carboxyl groups by acetate
or methyl are also being carried out to be used in the manufacture of plastic materials that are applied as
coatings or edible films for food packaging, due to the presence of advantages such as the presence of barriers
against oxygen, moisture and carbon dioxide [26]. Another modification that has been studied in recent years
has been the addition of lipids to cellulose derivatives, for example, the addition of beeswax to a carbohydrate
has shown increased moisture retention in food packaging while increasing mechanical strength and elasticity
[27]. One of the major advantages of this biotechnological advance is the biodegradation and decrease in
environmental pollution not only in the production phase but also in use, for example, Alpina (the brand)
currently packages its dairy products in packaging that is made with 36% less plastics [28].

In the United States and England, research has been carried out to ensure that the cellulose obtained
from trees to be converted into paper is of higher quality, as the quality of the carbohydrate depends on the
genetics of the tree, which is why sugars have been injected into soils intended for tree plantations to make
them richer in carbohydrates and at the same time of higher quality, however, this solution has not been very
effective as some microorganisms present in the soil are capable of metabolising the sugars before they are
used by the seedling for tree growth. For this reason, an alternative method has been proposed to improve tree
quality by injecting sugars directly into the tree trunk so that the substances are added directly to the vascular
system, resulting in greater efficiency in the use of the product, elimination of environmental pollution and an

4
alternative to other methods that have the same purpose but are much more complex and costly [29] and in
line with this by modifying the genetics of the trees used by the industry, the residues left by the industry are
also of higher quality and can be further exploited by humans in the construction of materials and
nanomaterials, an example of which are wood and straw.

Wood and straw are currently being studied to produce biofuels, as most of them are produced from
waste edible raw materials, which has caused problems for the food industry, as it is one of the industries that
makes most use of its carbohydrate waste [30], which is why different alternatives have been sought. Non-
edible lignocellulosic material (wood and straw), obtained as waste from different industries such as paper
and agriculture, has been analysed in different studies in which the best conditions to produce biofuel from
this raw material have been determined. As a result, the best solvent among toluene, cycloalkanes and 1,2-
dichloroethane for the synthesis of 5-bromomethylfurfural biofuel was the last mentioned, as the first reacts
forming benzyl bromide as a by-product and the second becomes useless due to its low solubility [31],
however, in the synthesis of CMF biofuel the best solvent was 3c-DES, providing a yield of 70% in a time of
30 minutes from glucose; from bamboo the yield obtained with the same solvent at 20°C was 35%; 86% from
fructose; 80% from sucrose and 30% from cellulose [32].

Research has also been carried out on barley straw biomass for use in the production of fermentable
sugars by bioextrusion with hydrolytic enzymes. The bioextrusion method has been investigated and
constantly improved by making use of different chemical methodologies such as the use of biochemical bases
or catalysts in order to obtain yields higher than 80% so that these biomass residues can be used and properly
exploited by different industries that need fermentation processes [33].

Due to the environmental pollution generated by the synthesis and treatment of raw material to obtain
a specific desired material, different sources of raw material have been investigated, for example, humins,
which are a by-product of a hydroxymethylfurfural acid biorefinery obtained by acid treatment of different
polysaccharides and show a potential as a reactive and semi-ductile thermostable matrix to impregnate
cellulosic fibres, the implementation of humins in building materials brings great advantages not only because
of their origin but also because they increase the strength of the material and are beneficial in the impregnation
of wood [34]. Other building materials derived from carbohydrates are fibre, biochar derived from biomass
and waste.

Lignin is a phenolic polymer obtained as waste from biorefineries producing sugar and from the paper
industry [35], it is also considered one of the most sustainable and economical materials for obtaining carbon

5
fibers [16], however, lignin waste is not used for the production of fuels as is the case with carbohydrates and
their derivatives, as these fuels are of poor quality due to the difficult conversion of lignin into monomers
[36], however, from the carbon fibers that can be obtained from it, it is possible to improve the properties of
certain materials, for example, coconut fiber has recently been studied showing improvement in compressive
strength, this improvement has been affected by the length of the fiber as it is expected that the longer the
fiber is, the greater the strength and adhesion it provides to the material [37]. Other precursors for fiber
construction are currently being studied, such as the lignosulphate-acrylonitrile-acylaconic acid terpolymer,
as this has shown greater thermal stability of the fiber [38].

Biochar is a material that can be obtained from biomass waste such as agricultural waste, food industry
waste or sludge by subjecting it to heat treatment with limited oxygen. One of the beneficial characteristics in
building materials, e.g., cement, is the high surface area value, high pore volume, metal dispersion and long-
term stability [39].

Recently, encapsulations of carbohydrates with lipids or proteins of animal origin have been carried
out for the improvement of wall materials, an example of this is the performed encapsulation of whey protein
with glucose syrup intended for the use of glassy walls, however, obtaining high yields in this procedure has
not been simple or possible since the solution properties of biopolymers such as viscosity, surface tension,
and conductivity, can be very high, surface tension and conductivity, can be affected by the solids content in
the solution, by the temperatures and pressure handled, and when trying to introduce gums in the treatment of
the material to increase the viscosity, films of different thicknesses and with some lumps were obtained due
to the capacity of the gums to absorb water, making the material susceptible to deformation [40].

Sucrose, obtained from agricultural waste, and isomaltose have been investigated as disaccharides for
the development of amphiphilic materials, also called amphipathic. Studies have involved the esterification of
sugars using fatty acids (such as palmitic acid), as well as an example mentioned above. When these two
macromolecules are brought together, they can form micelles, but for these micelles to be formed, the
conditions of the medium must be strictly constant, as the hygroscopic nature of sucrose derivatives can affect
the testing and obtaining high yields in the construction of the materials. In the case of isomaltose, the material
obtained at the end of the test turned out to be too rigid and heat resistant. For this reason, different
carbohydrates and their union with steroids are currently being investigated to provide the material with the
flexibility that the molecule acquires between its bonds, allowing the material to adapt to different situations
and reducing the heat resistance according to the interest of each study. The full technological development
of these techniques would be aimed at the use of molecules in crystalline materials [41].

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 In general terms, the use of carbohydrate derivatives in construction materials brings great advantages
for the industry, such as a decrease in gas emissions, a decrease in the economic level in the treatment of
materials, but above all, at an environmental level, its repercussions are very positive as they are based on the
use of waste left by other industries, making the whole process highly environmentally friendly, and these
discoveries are considered technological advances in the materials and construction industry. However, they
also have negative effects, as they are recent products for the consumer it is difficult to believe in the quality
of the products considering that this is far from the traditional, also the equipment needed to carry out the
processes are sophisticated and generally difficult to obtain, limiting the production of this type of materials
[42].

Latex is a material highly recognized for its elasticity, however, its degradation is difficult and
generally the uses for which it is intended are not long term, so this material is wasted in large quantities and
proportionally pollutes the environment, which is why we have sought to improve the base material for the
synthesis of rubber. One of the alternatives has been fructose accompanied by the enzyme fructokinase, which
intervenes in the phosphorylation of this sugar, allowing the creation of elastic fabrics such as latex. Another
alternative has been to obtain latex by means of the genome of trees, demonstrating the capacity of the latter
in the recovery and synthesis of this rubber [43]. Latex can also be stabilized by the action of native
carbohydrates such as starch and dextran or by the action of modified hydrophobic sugars such as hydroxy
alkylated celluloses [44].

Starch derivatives have also been studied for the improved production of environmentally friendly
urea-formaldehyde-based agricultural composites using carbon xerogels as sequestrants which resulted in
adding thermal stability and a higher strength adhesive system to the final synthesized material [45].

3D printing has also been a technological advance accompanied by the use of sugars and their residues
as raw materials, among them are elastomers such as silicone which in turn are used in the construction of
robots thanks to their great stability, flexibility and ability to recover their original shape, also improve the
quality of the final product (3D printing or robot) increasing its resistance to mechanical forces, its capacity
for tension and elongation up to 1260% with only 20% silicone added and the safety it provides to the user,
especially in the case of robots. In the case of 3D printing, it improves the quality of the product obtained by
providing biodegradable properties, but at the same time increasing its useful life [46].

7
 Carbohydrates can have different functions in the synthesis or stabilization of polymers, for example,
as a surfactant, some of its advantages are that it does not need chemical modification for its use and that it is
possible to have control in the size and distribution of particles throughout the material, however in some
cases the particle size is not large enough, which generates a disadvantage in the use of sugars as surfactants;
Additionally, an example of a carbohydrate fulfilling this function is chitosan, which is involved in the
synthesis of mini-emulsion stabilised polymer dispersions [47]. They are also used as macromers and as a
grafting site [48, 49].

Added carbohydrates such as cellulose have helped to improve defect formation in certain materials
such as ZnO derivatives, which is a very important semiconductor at the industrial level, but due to its
physicochemical properties so sensitive to the working conditions, during the processing phase the material
can result in optical or sensing defects, For this reason, the implementation of sugars as additives during the
material production phase has been widely studied as it allows to control the kinetic conditions and to
incorporate dopants that improve the conductive properties of the material allowing a customisation of the
defects. For this treatment it is not possible to use common fuels as these require high temperatures for
combustion, which could damage the material irreversibly; In addition to the temperatures that allow the
combustion of sugar-derived fuels, the ecological uniqueness, the diversity in chemical functionality and the
homogeneity of the precursors are considered advantages in the addition of carbohydrate residues in the
material and it is precisely these characteristics that allow greater control over the defects [49].

Carbohydrate derivatives and even some residues from different industries have been collected in order
to be used in the construction of nanomaterial granules with a size between 400 and 600 microns, this method
has been very effective in the nanomaterials industry as they have managed to determine crystallographically
pure grains and also no secondary crystalline phases have been detected, obtaining yields very close to 100%;
These grains obtained are used in the construction of bioceramics, generally for floors, by in situ esterification
and activation of N,N-diisopropylcarbodiimide [47].

Suture materials are one of the most widely used biomedical materials in industrial quantities and their
technological advance has been very significant over the years, starting with basic linen strips and ending in
what are currently synthetic polymers. However, various advances continue to be studied for the constitution
of suture materials that attribute greater safety and efficacy to the final product. The most recent and significant
advance has been the implementation of carbohydrate polymers such as cellulose, which is usually obtained
from bamboo and sisal waste, Some modifications have been applied to these residues as they provide great
advantages to the material such as increased mechanical strength and lightness due to the low density of

8
carbohydrates [50] and also prevent the formation of biofilms [51] as the use of synthetic polymers has shown
local changes in pH which leads to an increase in inflammatory processes that in turn impede the wound
healing process, also due to its origin its degradation is complex and takes a long time [52]. One of the
modifications that have been made to cellulose is its oxidation, as the human body is not able to assimilate it
due to the absence of cellulase [46] whereas oxidized cellulose, besides being biodegradable and
biocompatible, is a good option in the construction of suture materials, as it has been found to be absorbed by
humans [53], It has also been shown to facilitate wound healing by suppressing the activity of certain enzymes
such as matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), which results in a reduction in inflammatory activity [54].

Certain sugars and sugar derivatives have also been used as stabilizers for labile biological materials
such as proteins and peptides, mostly used in the pharmaceutical industry [55].

Pharmaceutical industry
The stabilizing system that can be created from a glass-forming excipient has been widely utilized in
pharmaceutical applications, primarily those involved in the delivery of drugs or chemicals with a specific
target in mind. These stabilizers are important because the cargo could be unstable to begin with and the
material that acts as its carrier, firstly can act as a stabilizer, secondly can improve the absorption to its desired
destination, and finally stagnate the degradation of said cargo [55].

Carbohydrates have proved to be a source of interest in the pharmaceutical industry because of their
characteristics such as their solubility, gelling potential, and interfacial properties, which have made them
compounds being increasingly investigated for biomedical applications [56, 57]. Chitosan, one of the
carbohydrates used in these applications, can be obtained from the waste produced at sea food restaurants,
more specifically, the shells of crustaceans. One of the applications of carbohydrate-based polymers includes
their function as drug delivery devices. These polymers once united to drugs, have been used as soluble and
micellar delivery devices that target ligands (active targeting) or that target specific organs or cells depending
on the size of the delivery device or its physicochemical properties [57, 58].

There are several advantages of using polysaccharide-based nanoparticles. Polysaccharides consist of

modifiable groups, including hydroxyl, amino, carboxylic acid, which portray the structural diversity within
this group. The abundance of hydroxyl groups allows them to adhere non-covalently to biological tissue which
may sometimes improve drug targeting. Additionally, they can function in environments that are anionic,
cationic, and neutral in charge. Certain polysaccharides such as chitosan [58, 59] have even shown

9
antimicrobial properties and synergism with antibiotic cargo. Unlike other synthetic polymers,
polysaccharides are generally considered non-toxic and are capable of being degraded by enzymes, breaking
down into compounds that can be recycled by the cell. Furthermore, polysaccharides are inexpensive, natural,
and renewable compounds [58].

Chitosan is a biopolymer that has proved efficient in the transport of peptides through the nasal cavity
and to be an enhancer in the absorption process [60, 61]. Targeted chitosan nanoparticles have also been
involved in the development of drug delivery systems involved in therapeutics and as contrast agents to tumors
or metastasis for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer [56]. Additionally, it is a material that is easily degraded
by the microbiota present in the human colon [56]. Polysaccharides from fungal sources have also been used
to stimulate the immune system in addition to the drug they carry. These polysaccharide drug delivery systems
to antigens have shown potential in vaccines in cancer prophylaxis and treatment [62]. Ikehara et al. described
in their study how a new drug delivery method using carbohydrate recognition by macrophages could be
utilized to control tumor development [63].

Another application of these polysaccharides obtained from industrial waste in the pharmaceutical
industry is their use in tissue regeneration. For tissue engineering, the physicochemical properties that are
noted are its capability to adhere to cells, its effectiveness in cellular proliferation, and its effect to an
inflammatory response. An important aspect to consider is its biodegradability, because in tissue regeneration,
these materials are used primarily as a scaffold. The fields where polysaccharides have been used in tissue
engineering include skin, cartilage, cardiovascular, neural, and hepatics [5].

Skin regeneration is an important application of polysaccharides because of the importance of skin as

an environmental barrier that when it is absent in large proportions, could cause serious illness. Patients
suffering from third degree burns tend to require skin grafts as a part of the healing process. The development
of skin grafts has proved to be difficult, so there is currently a lot of studies and research in the development
of skin replacements. Initially, these skin replacements have come from direct transplants, however, this
option has caused problems such as psychological rejection of the organ and the additionally the fact that it is
hard to come by a matching transplant [64]. The materials that are considered for skin regeneration need to
have the ability to provide environmental protection while at the same time allowing water permeability, the
promotion of healing, and the reduction of pain. The materials most used are both alginate and chitosan [5].

Currently, vascular repairs or implants are stents and grafts. The importance of these is reflected on
their use for the treatment of thrombosis, inflammation, and others. Sundararajan et al. investigated the use of

10
chitosan to make scaffolds that could be shaped as porous membranes, blocks, tubes and beads [64]. Janeen
et al. evaluated the viability of the use of chitosan with glycosaminoglycans in vascular cells and found that
it could be used to modulate the proliferation of these cells [65]. Chitosan based materials have been found to
be able to support the growth of these cells in vivo, which leads to the idea that polysaccharides could be used
in the fabrication of implants in the future [5].

Neural regeneration and repair have been a subject of high importance to researchers. The material to
be used for the engineering of these tissues needs to have physicochemical properties like those of soft tissue.
Cheng et al. investigated the nerve cell affinity to films of chitosan and gelatin and found that its mixture gives
it greater affinity to nerve cells. Previous studies have already found that chitosan was a material that promoted
the growth of nerve cells and acted as a viable candidate for the regeneration of nerve cells [5, 66].

Medicine industry
The cyanobacteria that produce cyanoflan are composed of 71% carbohydrates and are characterized
by high apparent viscosity in aqueous solutions, such viscosity evidencing non-Newtonian fluid behavior with
pseudoplastic behavior. A chemical analysis of glycosidic substitution evidenced the complex chemical
structure of this compound, which is highly branched by sugar residues, these residues have provided
emulsifying properties to certain products to which they have been added as in the cosmetic industry [67].

Among the cyanobacteria that produce extracellular polymeric cyanoflan substances is the marine
unicellular cyanobacterium Cyanostehce sp. CCY 0110, which produces this polysaccharide by "throwing" it
into the extracellular medium, this complex macromolecule is composed of nine monosaccharide residues
among which are Man (20 mol%), Glc (20 mol%), uronic acids (18 mol%), Gal (10 mol%), Xyl (9 mol%),
Rha (9 mol%), Fuc (8 mol%), and Ara (6 mol%) [68]. It has been shown that this polymer has several
applications for the cosmetic industry, since polymers of similar origin have been used as moisturizers, gelling
and fluorogenic agents, considerably improving the texture and quality of the product [69]. Similarly, it can
be used as a stabilizer in paints and in oil recovery [70]. Being a natural polymer, it has advantages such as
biodegradability, biocompatibility, and low toxicity, therefore its production line can be optimized by using
the remaining biomass as fertilizer [71].

Folate, also called folic acid or vitamin B, is a water-soluble vitamin necessary in the maturation of
structural proteins and haemoglobin and for this reason incorrect protein conjugation of folate or the absence
or generation of antibodies against the folate receptor in the human or animal body tends to be associated with

11
anaemia and sometimes severe neurological conditions such as cognitive-behavioural disorder, walking
difficulties [72, 73]. Folate is conjugated to proteins allowing folate receptor-mediated endocytosis, delivering
the conjugate to the cytoplasm of cells; receptor-ligand interaction is affected by gelonin toxin activity and in
order to mitigate this, methods to inhibit this activity have been studied, including the use of carbohydrate
residues obtained from gelonin using SH-folate as an intermediate and PDPH as a selective carbohydrate
cross-linker in protein conjugation, achieving prolonged inhibition of folate receptor-positive toxin protein
synthesis in vitro [74].

However, other studies have shown how the folate receptor is overexpressed in various tumors
including ovarian, kidney, uterine, testicular, brain, colon, and lung cancers [75], so achieving inhibition of
the receptor's protein synthesis by the action of carbohydrate residues has created hope for cancer treatments,
allowing conventional therapies (chemotherapy, radiation, surgery) to be slightly bypassed. Another related
method has been the incursion of magnetic nanocomposites as drug carriers, as mentioned above, as they
allow the release of active ingredients in response to an externally applied magnetic field; by implementing
magnetic nanocomposites based on carbohydrate residues, several advantages have been found, such as
greater stability, biocompatibility and lower toxicity in the transport of drugs used in cancer treatments, as
well as allowing physicians to have greater local control over the location of cancer cells or tumors [76].

The development of vaccines from carbohydrates and their derivatives has also been one of the great
advances in the world of medicine. Approximately 70% of the vaccines currently used against different
diseases are based on carbohydrate antigens. The way these vaccines are carried out is based on a thorough
investigation of the chemical structure of the disease or antigen being studied, for example, the globo-H
antigen has been identified in the structure of cells associated with breast and prostate cancer and from this
discovery a vaccine has been developed that is able to inactivate or minimise the original size of the tumour;
The synthesis of the vaccine is clearly based on chemical modifications of the carbohydrates by binding them
to ceramide aglycon obtaining an immunologically competent antigen, from this molecule further chemical
modifications have been carried out, for example in the alkylated groups by means of ozonolysis obtaining a
polyvalent glycoconjugate, which was studied in patients with prostate cancer and, positively, resulted in a
progressive and recurrent decrease in tumour size in various and different portions of the globo-H antigen
[77].

Vaccines against infectious diseases have also been the subject of study by the scientific community,
for example, IFIs (invasive fungal infections) have increased over the years due to the absence of antifungal
agents to combat them and the excess of antibiotics, which makes the population more susceptible to this type

12
of infection. Fungi contain saccharides (chitin and β-glucans) in their cell wall [78] which, due to their origin,
are currently being studied in the development of vaccines, considering that their receptors are involved in
inflammatory processes and tissue damage [79]. Vaccines developed for fungal diseases are also
glycoconjugated and target fungal glycans to covalently bind to a carrier protein creating a specific and potent
immune response and leaving immune memory cells [80].

HIV/AIDS was discovered in the 1980s and since then more than 32 million people have died from
the virus. The scientific community has sought to develop a safe and effective prophylactic vaccine, as the
most widely used vaccine has so far shown a protective efficacy of only 31%, and therefore the development
of a vaccine to combat the virus is expected to have a mechanism of action based on the elicitation of
neutralising antibodies together with T-cell responses that are both T-helper and cytotoxic. The vaccine
developed from carbohydrates, their derivatives and residues involve mimicking epitopes with minimal
surrounding protein structure to minimise off-target responses in the design of vaccines capable of inducing
broadly neutralising antibodies [81].

Generally, the carbohydrates used in the development of glycoconjugated vaccines are obtained from
waste from different industries such as paper, food and from the cultivation of sugar-rich foods such as
potatoes, however, due to the purity required it has also been sought to synthesise the carbohydrates in the
laboratory in search of higher yields [82].

Conclusion
For the scientific community in general, the use of carbohydrate residues has gained momentum in
recent years as different modifications to these residues have been discovered and developed to be used by
humans in different industries, one of which is the materials industry as it has been possible to prove that they
provide the material with greater mechanical strength, thermal stability, increase its surface area and its
flexibility and ductility as needed. Moreover, as they are mostly produced by living beings, they are well
assimilated by the human organism when they are taken into account in applications such as medicine where,
for example, suture materials are very important and, as they are absorbed by the organism in a natural way,
they are not very invasive and help in the process of de-inflammation and healing and, in line with this, even
in the regeneration of skin tissue; In addition, other technological advances have been developed in this same
field, such as the creation of carbohydrate-based vaccines for different deadly viruses such as HIV or for
diseases with complex treatments such as cancer. The use of carbohydrate waste has gained momentum not
only because of the large number of applications it can have, but also because of the ease with which it
assimilates different chemical treatments for its modification and because of its nature, which makes a material

13
biodegradable or, in the case of medicine, correctly and naturally assimilated by the human body. However,
there is still a long way to go and it is essential to continue to carry out research in this regard because, although
the results obtained so far are encouraging, they could be much better and promising, as it is still necessary to
improve performance and develop the best conditions and analysis techniques for each treatment carried out
so that it follows the objectives of sustainable development and at the same time is beneficial and truly
functional with human life; in addition, the results found must be promoted and promoted so that research
continues to be developed around the subject and consumers begin to trust in these technological advances.

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