Ts. Johnson et al., BIOTRANSFORMATION OF FERULIC ACID AND VANILLYLAMINE TO CAPSAICIN AND VANILLIN IN IMMOBILIZED CELL-CULTURES OF CAPSICUM-FRUTESCENS, Plant cell, tissue and organ culture, 44(2), 1996, pp. 117-121
Immobilized plant cell cultures of Capsicum frutescens Mill. were trea
ted with the ferulic acid and vanillylamine in order to study their bi
otransformation ability. It was found that ferulic acid and vanillylam
ine were biotransformed to capsaicin and vanillin. Ferulic acid treate
d cultures produced more vanillin than capsaicin whereas vanillylamine
treated cultures produced more capsaicin. This trend was expected sin
ce ferulic acid and vanillylamine are the nearest precursors to vanill
in and capsaicin, respectively Maximum vanillin (315 mu g/culture was
observed in ferulic acid (2.5 mM) treated cultures on the 15th day and
maximum capsaicin (190 mu g/culture) was in vanillylamine (2.5mM) tre
ated cultures on the 6th day. It was shown that immobilized cell cultu
res of C. frutescens can perform oxidative deamination, a reversible r
eaction which was evident by conversion of vanillylamine to vanillin.
This study also provides an example for an alternative route to format
ion of vanillin by cell cultures.