Improvement of clavulanic acid production by Streptomyces clavuligerus in medium containing soybean derivatives

The effect of the nitrogen source in the production medium on the level of clavulanic acid production by Streptomyces clavuligerus has been investigat ed. Batch cultures using two types of synthetic culture medium and two type s of complex culture medium containing soybean derivatives were employed. T o allow comparison of the various media, all of them were formulated with 4 .0 g total nitrogen/l. It was observed that the production of clavulanic ac id using synthetic medium reached values slightly greater than those usuall y found in the literature. However, in trials with complex media, it was fo und that when Samprosoy 90NB (protein extract of soybean) was utilized, pro duction of clavulanic acid went up to 920 mg/l, twice as high as when soy m eal was used, and notably higher than values reported in the literature (30 0-500 mg/l) for complex medium.