Biotechnological production of vanillin

Abstract

Vanillin is one of the most important aromatic flavor compounds used in foods, beverages, perfumes, and pharmaceuticals and is produced on a scale of more than 10 thousand tons per year by the industry through chemical synthesis. Alternative biotechnology-based approaches for the production are based on bioconversion of lignin, phenolic stilbenes, isoeugenol, eugenol, ferulic acid, or aromatic amino acids, and on de novo biosynthesis, applying fungi, bacteria, plant cells, or genetically engineered microorganisms. Here, the different biosynthesis routes involved in biotechnological vanillin production are discussed.

GriC and GriD Constitute a Carboxylic Acid Reductase Involved in Grixazone Biosynthesis in Streptomyces griseus

“…The bioconversion of some aryl carboxylates described above was not observed in the negative control strain harboring pIJ702-griG. It should be mentioned that vanillin, the characteristic aroma component in vanilla, is one of the most important aromatic flavors used widely; a great market demand for natural flavors has brought about a growing interest to produce natural vanillin from natural sources by microbial transformation [20]. This system may have a potential to be employed in production of natural vanillin by microbes, as is suggested for the Nocardia CAR system [13].…”

Efeito alelopático do extrato alcoólico do cravo-da-índia e eugenol

“…Essa aplicação comercial direta tem como conseqüência vários estudos sobre a obtenção do óleo essencial do cravo-da-índia (Clifford et al 1999, Rovio et al 1999. Além disso, o eugenol tem sido empregado para a produção de outros fenólicos, tal como a vanilina (Priefert et al 2001).…”

“…Essa aplicação comercial direta tem como conseqüência vários estudos sobre a obtenção do óleo essencial do cravo-da-índia (Clifford et al 1999, Rovio et al 1999. Além disso, o eugenol tem sido empregado para a produção de outros fenólicos, tal como a vanilina (Priefert et al 2001).Alguns trabalhos mostraram que eugenol ou extratos de S. aromaticum apresentam atividade nematicida (Tsao & Yu 2000, Walker & Melin 1996, inseticida (El-Hag et al 1999), antiviral (Yukawa et al 1996), bactericida (Dorman & Deans 2000, Nascimento et al 2000, Ouattara et al 1997) e fungicida (Delespaul et al 2000). Os efeitos bactericida e fungicida do eugenol talvez expliquem porque a pulverização de sementes de cravo com fungicidas não melhora a germinação (Maeda et al 1991).…”

Enrichment of maize and triticale bran with recombinant Aspergillus tubingensis ferulic acid esterase

“…Due to its low toxicity, ferulic acid has been approved for use as an antioxidant additive in cosmetics, foods and beverage industries (Graf 1992). In the food industry, ferulic acid is, among others, used as a precursor for the production of vanillin, a flavouring agent (Priefert et al 2001). Ferulic acid represents up to 1.4% of dry weight of cereal grains and is covalently linked with various carbohydrates as a glycosidic conjugate, ester or amide (Kumar and Pruthi 2014).…”