Rapid transformation of ferulic acid to 4-vinyl guaiacol by Bacillus pumilus S-1

Abstract

A Bacillus pumilus strain S-1, earlier reported to efficient in converting of isoeugenol to vanillin, was found to have the biotransformation ability of ferulic acid. This strain rapidly dissimilated 1 g L-1 ferulic acid within 3 h and 4-vinyl guaiacol was identified as the main product. The highest concentration of 4-vinyl guaiacol, 0.72 g L-1, was obtained with a molar yield of 93.1 %. Different from former reports, 4-vinyl guaiacol was not further metabolized and no other vanilla flavour compounds were found.