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Microbial biotransformation is an efficient process for making high-value natural products in a controlled and environment friendly manner. Bioconversion of low value monoterpenes to high value products using fungi offers an effective strategy for producing desirable products. Efficient conversion of D-limonene, a monoterpene, into carveol is reported in this study by using an endophytic fungus, Aspergillus flavus IIIMF4012, isolated from the root of Rosa damascena. By optimizing different parameters, isolated strain resulted in the hydroxylation of D-limonene to carveol effectively and the process was carried out at 1 L scale which resulted in the formation of a mixture of carveol isomers (cis- carveol 23.82%, trans- carveol 17.21%). Further, the biotransformation was scaled up in 5 L fermenter and the product was characterized by GC-MS and NMR (1H & 13C). As a result, an efficient procedure was established for biotransforming a low-value molecule i.e., D-limonene into a high-value product i.e.,carveol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural value-added compounds produced from biological sources have attained immense significance in medicinal, food, flavourings, and agrochemical industries. Further, biotransformation is a powerful tool used to produce value-added compounds cost-effectively and selectively. In the present study, biotransformation of eugenol using an endophytic fungus Daldinia sp. IIIMF4010 isolated from the fresh leaves of the plant Rosmarinus officinalis leads to the production of two known value-added compounds. The biotransformation reaction of eugenol (50 mM) resulted in the production of eugenol-β-D-glucopyranoside (6.2%) and vanillin (21.8%). These biotransformed products were further characterized by liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study entails the usefulness of thermophilic amidase-producing bacterium in the biotransformation of benzamide to benzohydroxamic acid (BHA). A bacterium Bacillus smithii IIIMB2907 was isolated from a soil sample collected from hot springs of Manikaran, Himachal Pradesh, India. The whole cells of the bacterium displayed versatile substrate specificity by exhibiting significant activity with a diverse range of amides. In addition, amidase from thermophilic bacterium was induced by adding Ɛ-caprolactam in the mineral base media. The optimum temperature and pH of acyltransferase activity of amidase enzyme were found to be 50 °C and 7.0, respectively. Interestingly, half-life (t1/2) of this enzyme was 17.37 h at 50 °C. Bench-scale production and purification of BHA was carried out at optimized conditions which resulted in the recovery of 64% BHA with a purity of 96%. Owing to this, the reported process in the present study can be considered of immense industrial significance for the production of BHA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]