Biotechnological production of erythritol and its applications

Abstract

Erythritol, a four-carbon polyol, is a biological sweetener with applications in food and pharmaceutical industries. It is also used as a functional sugar substitute in special foods for people with diabetes and obesity because of its unique nutritional properties. Erythritol is produced by microbial methods using mostly osmophilic yeasts and has been produced commercially using mutant strains of Aureobasidium sp. and Pseudozyma tsukubaensis. Due to the high yield and productivity in the industrial scale of production, erythritol serves as an inexpensive starting material for the production of other sugars. This review focuses on the approaches for the efficient erythritol production, strategies used to enhance erythritol productivity in microbes, and the potential biotechnological applications of erythritol.

Transformation of Biomass into Commodity Chemicals Using Enzymes or Cells

“…It can be safely used as a noncariogenic sweetener in foods as it cannot be fermented by the bacteria that cause dental caries. In 2006, the world market was 20,000 t. 190 Erythritol is formed from glucose by yeasts and other fungal species via the pentose phosphate pathway, which has D-erytrose-4-phosphate as intermediate (see Figure 1). This is dephosphorylated by a kinase and subsequently reduced by erythrose reductase using NAD(P)H. 190 Such a pathway can lead theoretically to 1 mol of erythritol per mol of glucose (0.68 g/g), and requires aeration for NAD(P)H regeneration.…”

The effects of 90-day feeding of D-psicose syrup in male wistar rats

“…The PS was made from HFCS by the alkaline isomerization method. The alkaline isomerization method is used widely, resulted in production of many sugar products, such as cyclodextrin, maltitol, and erythritol [26]. D-Psicose can be produced by the enzymatic method on a large scale, making it possible to conduct biochemical and nutritional studies [6].…”

An Effective Method of Continuous Production of Erythritol from Glycerol by Yarrowia lipolytica MK1

“…It has about 60-80 % of the sweetness of sucrose in a 10 % solution. Its taste profi le resembles that of sucrose, and in many countries it has been safely used in food as a noncariogenic sweetener (2,3). Erythritol is produced in microbiological processes from carbohydrates, especially from glucose, using osmophilic yeast such as Moniliella sp.…”

“…Continuous cultivation with yeast is successfully used in biotechnology, e.g. in the production of biodiesel (16), bulk chemicals (17), xylitol (18) or citric acid (1).…”