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Microbial production of 4‐hydroxybenzylidene acetone, the direct precursor of raspberry ketone
Author(s) -
Feron G.,
Mauvais G.,
Martin F.,
Sémon E.,
BlinPerrin C.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
letters in applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.698
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1472-765X
pISSN - 0266-8254
DOI - 10.1111/j.1472-765x.2007.02147.x
Subject(s) - acetone , aldolase a , ketone , bacteria , chemistry , bioconversion , fermentation , aldol reaction , aldol condensation , food science , biochemistry , organic chemistry , biology , enzyme , catalysis , genetics
Aims: To investigate the enzymatic aldol reaction between acetone as a donor and 4‐hydroxybenzaldehyde as a receptor to generate 4‐(4‐hydroxyphenyl)‐but‐3‐ene‐2‐one or 4‐hydroxybenzylidene acetone, the direct precursor of 4‐(4‐hydroxyphenyl)‐butan‐2‐one or raspberry ketone, using different species of filamentous fungi and bacteria. Methods and Results: Different classes of micro‐organisms were tested in a medium containing mainly acetone and 4‐hydoxybenzaldehyde. Of the micro‐organisms tested, only bacteria were able to synthesize significant amounts of 4‐hydroxybenzylidene acetone, ranging from 15 to 160 mg l −1 after 21 h of bioconversion, as a function of the bacteria tested. Conclusions: The biological production of 4‐hydroxybenzylidene acetone has been described with bacteria possessing 2‐deoxyribose‐5‐phosphate aldolase (DERA, EC 4·1·2·4). This result suggests that DERA is involved in the catalytic aldolization of precursors for the production of 4‐hydroxybenzylidene acetone. Significance and Impact of the Study: Raspberry ketone or frambinone represents a total market value of between €6 million and €10 million. The possibility of producing its direct precursor through a simple process using bacteria is of considerable interest to the flavour market and the food industry as a whole. This paper broadens the spectrum for the use of aldolase to achieve the biological synthesis of compounds of interest.