Biotransformation of eugenol to vanillin by a novel strain Bacillus safensis SMS1003

Abstract

Due to the extensive applications of vanillin as flavored compound and increasing consumers concern for its natural and environment friendly mode of production, present work was focused on the selection of bacterial isolate capable of producing vanillin using eugenol biotransformation. Bacterial strain SMS1003 is evidenced as the potential strain for vanillin production and identified as Bacillus safensis (GeneBank accession no. MG561863) using biochemical tests and molecular phylogenic analysis of its 16S rDNA gene sequence. Molar yield of vanillin reached up to 10.7% (0.055 g/L) at 96 h of biotransformation using growing culture of B. safensis SMS1003 in following culture conditions: eugenol concentration 500 mg/L; temperature 37 °C; initial pH 7.0; inoculum volume 4%; volume of culture media 10%; and shaking speed 180 rpm. Vanillin was detected as the single metabolite with a molar yield of 26% (0.12 g/L) at 96 h using resting cells of B. safensis SMS1003. Product confirmation was based on spectral scan using photodiode array detector, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography, and mass spectroscopy.