title: Biotransformation of perfumery terpenoids, (-)-ambrox® by a fungal culture Macrophomina phaseolina and a plant cell suspension culture of Peganum harmala.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Biotransformation offers chemo enzymatic system to modify the compounds into their novel analogues which are difficult to synthesize by chemical methods. This paper describes the biotransformational studies of ambrox, one of the most important components of natural Ambergris (wale sperm) with fungal and plant cell culture.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Biotransformation of (-)-ambrox (1) with a fungal cell culture of Macrophomina phaseolina and a plant cell suspension cultures of Peganum harmala yielded oxygenated products, 3β-hydroxyambrox (2), 6β-hydroxyambrox (3), 1α-hydroxy-3oxoambrox (4), 1α,3β-dihydroxyambrox (5), 13,14,15,16-tetranorlabdane-3-oxo-8,12-diol (6), 3-oxoambrox (7), 2α-hydroxyambrox (8), 3β-hydroxysclareolide (9), and 2α,3β-dihydroxyambrox (10). Metabolite 4 was found to be new compound. These metabolites were structurally characterized on the basis of spectroscopic studies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nine oxygenated metabolites of (-)-ambrox (1) were obtained from Macrophomina phaseolina and Peganum harmala. Enzymatic system of screened organisms introduced hydroxyl and keto functionalities at various positions of compound 1 in a stereo- and regio-controlled manner.
authors.affiliation: H,E,J, Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan. musharraf1977@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Syed Ghulam
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Musharraf
authors.forename: Sheeba
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naz
authors.forename: Asma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Najeeb
authors.forename: Saifullah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: M Iqbal
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Choudhary