title: A very efficient bioconversion of soybean phytosterols mixtures to androstanes by mycobacteria.
abstract: The production of several high value steroid drugs, used as progestational, adrenocortical, estrogenic and contraceptive agents, is mostly derived from 4-androstene-dione (AD) and 1,4 androsta-diene-3,17-dione (ADD). Three Vietnamese phytosterols mixtures named VN-1, VN-2 and VN-3, isolated from soybean oil may be efficiently converted into these key compounds by mycobacterial cells. Their general phytosterol composition was 55.39, 70.55, 70.19% for VN-1, VN-2 and VN-3, respectively. Moreover, values of campesterol, beta-sitosterol and stigmasterol were determined. After 120 h of shaking in suitable culture media and temperature, maximal yield conversion to ADD was higher than 70% and up to 64% to AD, for the various phytosterols mixtures assays. These results may be better when scaling-up such a procedure of phytosterols conversion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnological Processes, National Center for Science Research, PO Box 6990, Havana, Cuba. celso.perez@cnic.edu.cu
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Falero
authors.forename: H Luu
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Duc
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Balcinde
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Hung
mesh_terms: D000731:Androstanes / Q000378:metabolism*; D007218:Industrial Microbiology; D009161:Mycobacterium; D010840:Phytosterols / Q000378:metabolism*; D013024:Soybean Oil / Q000737:chemistry; D013025:Glycine max / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000731:Androstanes; D010840:Phytosterols; D013024:Soybean Oil