Bioproduction of glycolic acid from glycolonitrile with a new bacterial isolate of Alcaligenes sp. ECU0401.

Alcaligenes sp. ECU0401 has been isolated from soil samples with high nitrilase activity against glycolonitrile using the enrichment culture technique. The preferred carbon/nitrogen sources and metal ions were sodium acetate, a composite of peptone and yeast extract, and Cu(2+), respectively.

Improving enzymatic production of ginsenoside Rh2 from Rg3 by using nonionic surfactant.

In this study, several nonionic surfactants were tried to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis of ginsenoside Rg3 into Rh2 which was catalyzed at 50 degrees C and pH 5.0 by a crude glucosidase extracted from Fusarium sp. ECU2042.

Synthesis of novel salidroside esters by lipase-mediated acylation with various functional acyl groups.

Salidroside, a natural glycoside, was enzymatically derived for the first time into novel esters using lipase as biocatalyst. The reaction system of glycoside acylation was optimized, and the effect of solvent nature, concentrations of substrate and biocatalyst, and acyl donors' structure on the acylation was studied. In the optimal system, various structures of acyl donors, either natural or unnatural, including short alkyl acyl groups, long chain acyl groups and acyl donors with aryl group were connected to molecular backbone of the glycoside, forming various structures of novel glycoside esters.