Vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzaldheyde) is the major organoleptic component of natural vanilla, obtained from Vanilla orchid pods and commercialized at a price of about 2000-4000 $ kg-1. It is a frequently used aromatic flavor compound in food, beverage, confectionery, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries. However, the natural production from Vanilla pod, beside the
high cost, cannot satisfy the world vanillin demand.

 

There are many alternative chemicals and biotechnological processes available for vanilla production. However, nature identical vanillin can only be produced from biotransformation of Ferulic acid (FA). The major drawback of ‘nature identical vanillin production is the high price of the substrate viz. FA. But, FA is a phenolic compound present in great amount in waste materials of agrowaste such as wheat and rice bran. These waste materials are abundant and very cheap in Assam and India.

 

FA can be released from these wastes through enzymatic hydrolysis of ester bonds. Therefore, local agro-wastes having good concentration of FA may be a better alternative of nature identical vanillin. Biotransformation may involve multiple fermentation steps that resulted in technical difficulty and increase the product cost.

 

We have reported production of nature identical vanillin through single-step biotransformation by Streptomyces sp. for the first time. This technology could effectively reduce the production cost.

 

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