Biosynthesis of 2-phenylethanol using tobacco waste as feedstock

Abstract

2-Phenylethanol (2-PE) is an aromatic alcohol with a rose-like odour, which is widely used in the food, drink and cosmetic industry. It also present in cigarette aromas. As a unique renewable biomass, tobacco contains abundant aromatic compounds, but is rarely used as a feedstock for synthesizing bio-based products. In this study, it was found that 2-PE can be produced from tobacco waste by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Plackett–Burman design, steepest ascent design and Box–Behnken designs were applied to optimize the fermentation bioprocess, and the maximum titre of 2-PE reached 1.55 g/l. The study explored a new method of 2-PE production and also provided a valuable way to utilize tobacco waste.

Keywords::

• 2-phenylethanol
• tobacco waste
• biosynthesis
• response-surface methogy
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Declaration of interest: The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors alone are res ponsible for the content and writing of the paper.

This work was supported by Basic Scientific Research Program of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2012ZL058) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (31201489).