TRANSFORMATIONS OF MORPHINE, CODEINE AND THEIR ANALOGS BY BACILLUS SP

A bacterial strain belonging to the genus Bacillus isolated by enrichm ent culture technique using morphine as a sole source of carbon transf orms morphine and codeine into 14-hydroxymorphinone and 14-hydroxycode inone as major and 14-hydroxymorphine and 14-hydroxycodeine as minor m etabolites, respectively. When the N-methyl group in morphine and code ine are replaced by higher alkyl groups, the organism still retains it s ability to carry out 14-hydroxylation as well as oxidation of the C- 6-hydroxyl group in these N-variants, although the level of metabolite s formed are considerably low. The organism readily transforms dihydro morphine and dihydrocodeine into only dihydromorphinone and dihydrocod einone, respectively; suggesting that the 7,8-double bond is a necessa ry structural feature to carry out 14-hydroxylation reaction. The cell free extract (20,000 x g supernatant), prepared from morphine grown c ells, transforms morphine into 14-hydroxymorphinone in the presence of NAD(+), but fails to show activity against testosterone. However, the cell free extract prepared from testosterone grown cells contains sig nificant levels of 17 beta- hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase but shows no activity against morphine.