Vanillin is basically used in the food & beverage industry to improve the sweetness of food items like candy, ice-creams, biscuits, cakes and chocolates. The extraction of vanillin is from an extract of vanilla bean and is also considered as an organic compound. It can be used naturally or can also be chemically synthesized. The initial procedure is, the natural green seed pods preserved for many months and then the flavor of vanillin is extracted. Methyl and ethyl are the two types of vanillin. Methyl vanillin is used on a large scale in vanilla flavored foods and has a mild flavor of vanilla beans plant.
Ethyl vanillin is an essential flavoring agent in the food industry and is stronger than methyl. Increase in pharmaceutical as well as food and beverage industries can fuel the growth of global vanillin market. The highlight is that, the natural vanillin’s industrial demand goes beyond the amount of vanillin extraction from plants. Therefore, alternative ways for the production of vanilla flavor is microorganism’s biotechnological production.
Bacillus Subtilis as a Potential Microorganism
Bacillus subtilis were utilized to convert many substrates like ferulic acid, isoeugenol and eugenol in vanillin. HPLC carried out the quantification and detection process of Vanillin. Compared to the substrates – eugenol and isoeugenol, a greater amount of production of vanillin was acquired in the culture media having the substrate ferulic acid. These results form the beginning for vanillin’s microbial production. Globally, vanillin is the best aromatic compound. Vanillin is utilized as an ingredient for fragrance in cosmetics and perfumes as well as an intermediary in agrochemicals. It’s also used as nutraceutical because of antioxidant and antimicrobial properties present in it.
Compared to vanillin’s synthetic counterpart, preference is given more for natural vanillin consumption because of the presence of racemic mix in synthetic production. The increasing demand for natural flavor has encouraged the necessity for natural vanillin production by means of alternative sources. One main alternative is the microbial conversion of precursors that are natural to synthesize vanillin.
More Analytical Insights
Analysis by HPLC was capable of detecting the occurrence of vanillin but the confirmation was held up because of the possible intervention of vanillic acid, which is the formation of the oxidized form. Vanillic acid may possess same retaining time as vanillin because of their same structure. Thus, it leads to assimilation of peaks of both the forms. Later, Spectrophotometric analysis validated the presence of vanillin by means of thiobarbituric acid. Vanillin is a phenyl propene that combines with TBA to produce absorbance maxima and yellow color at 434 nm. Under similar conditions, the calculation of the quantity of vanillin was done and higher applications were found in culture media that is ferulic acid based, compared to culture media that is isoeugenol based. To sum up, in order to advance the production of vanillin formed through microbial transformation, the probability of vanillic acid restraining the production of vanillin can further be researched and improved.
