Biotechnology Bulletin ›› 2016, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (1): 58-64.doi: 10.13560/j.cnki.biotech.bull.1985.2016.01.010

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Research Progress on Production of Tetramethylpyrazine by Fermentation

HOU Xiao-yuan, GU Ru-lin, LIANG Wen-long, XIAO Zi-jun   

  1. Centre for Bioengineering & Biotechnology, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580
  • Received:2015-03-25 Online:2016-01-09 Published:2016-01-22

Abstract: 2, 3, 5, 6-tetramethylpyrazine(TTMP)as an important food flavor additive, it has additional medicinal values, such as in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, respiratory system diseases and glomerular disease. In this paper, we reviewed the research progress on fermentation production of TTMP, analyzed the synthesis mechanism of TTMP, and summarized the effective strategies to increase the yield of TTMP, including the screening of endogenous high-yield strains, the optimization of fermentation process, the feeding of ammonium salt, and multi-step fermentation control. We concluded that the production of TTMP can be divided into two stages, i. e. the enzymatic synthesis of precursor acetoin and then the spontaneous condensation of TTMP from acetoin and ammonium. Further, the fermentation strategy with multiple-step temperature control effectively increased the production yield. The extraction and purification of the product were introduced as well. The future prospects of fermentation production of TTMP are discussed in light of the current progress, challenges, and trends in this field.

Key words: 2, 3, 5, 6-tetramethylpyrazine, fermentation, synthesis mechanism, high-yield strategies