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Co-production of caffeic acid and p-hydroxybenzoic acid from p-coumaric acid by Streptomyces caeruleus MTCC 6638

  • Applied Microbial and Cell Physiology
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Abstract

In a culture medium of Streptomyces caeruleus MTCC 6638 grown with p-coumaric acid (5 mM) as the sole source of carbon, co-production of caffeic acid and p-hydroxybenzoic acid was observed. Both caffeic acid and p-hydroxybenzoic acid are important phenolic compounds with pharmaceutical importance. These biotransformed products were identified by high-performance liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Obtained data suggest that p-coumaric acid was possibly utilized by two different routes, resulting in the formation of a hydroxycinnamate and a hydroxybenzoate compound. However, higher concentration of p-coumaric acid (10 mM) favoured caffeic acid formation. Addition of 5 mM p-coumaric acid into S. caeruleus cultures pre-grown on minimal medium with 1.0 g/l glucose resulted in the production of 65 mg/l caffeic acid. Furthermore, S. caeruleus cells were able to produce the maximum amount of caffeic acid when pre-grown on nutrient broth for 16 h. Under this condition, the addition of 5 mM p-coumaric acid was sufficient for the S. caeruleus culture to produce 150 mg/l caffeic acid, with a molar yield of 16.6% after 96 h of incubation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a ‘Career Award for Young Teachers’ (no. 1-51/FD/CA/(001)/2003–2004; to A. Mitra) from the All India Council for Technical Education, India, and in part by a multi-institutional research grant (no. BT/PR/2516/PID/24/120/2001; to A. Mitra and S.K. Sen) from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, India. A. Sachan acknowledges the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur for an institute research scholarship award. S. Ghosh was funded by DBT in the form of a senior research fellowship.

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  1. Natural Product Biotechnology Group, Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721 302, India

    Ashish Sachan, Shashwati Ghosh & Adinpunya Mitra

  2. Microbiology Laboratory, Botany Department, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, 731 235, India

    Sukanta Kumar Sen

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  1. Ashish Sachan
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  2. Shashwati Ghosh
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  4. Adinpunya Mitra
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Correspondence to Adinpunya Mitra.

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Sachan, A., Ghosh, S., Sen, S.K. et al. Co-production of caffeic acid and p-hydroxybenzoic acid from p-coumaric acid by Streptomyces caeruleus MTCC 6638. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 71, 720–727 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-005-0197-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-005-0197-1

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