RESUMO
Recently, the market value of aromas has constantly been rising. Because the supply from natural feedstock is limited, the biotechnological production has received more interest. Thus far, only a few attempts have been made to produce α-ionone, a valued essential aroma of raspberry, biotechnologically. This study reports a production process for enantiopure (R)-α-ionone from lab scale (2-150 L) with typical titer of 285 mg/L broth to industrial scale (up to 10â¯000 L) with a titer up to 400 mg/L broth, focusing on the development of a downstream process with a maximized yield at minimized effort. The developed recovery consists of solid-liquid extraction from the biomass at φ = 0.4 g of n-hexane/g of biomass for 90 min at ambient temperature and adsorption from the aqueous supernatant at Φ = 0.5 g of Diaion HP-20/mg of α-ionone, followed by desorption at Ψ = 30 g of n-hexane/g of Diaion HP-20. Altogether, natural α-ionone could be gained in substantial quantity and purity of >95%.
