Ferulic acid (FA) is a phenolic antioxidant present in plants, which is widely used in the food and cosmetic industry. In the present study, various agricultural wastes such as maize bran, rice bran, wheat bran, wheat straw, sugar cane baggasse, pineapple peels, orange peels, and pomegranate peels were screened for the presence of esterified FA (EFA). Among the sources screened, maize bran was found to contain the highest amount of EFA. Pineapple peels, orange peels, and pomegranate peels were also found to contain traces of EFA. Alkaline extraction of EFA from maize bran was carried out using 2 M NaOH. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used for optimization of EFA extraction, which resulted in a 1.3-fold increase as compared to the unoptimized conventional extraction technique. FA was analyzed by means of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Purification was carried out by adsorption chromatography using Amberlite XAD-16 followed by preparative high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC). The recovery of Amberlite XAD-16 purified FA was up to 57.97% with HPLC purity 50.89%. The fold purity achieved was 1.35. After preparative HPTLC, the maximum HPLC purity obtained was 95.35% along with an increase in fold purity up to 2.53.

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The current study proposes a one-step biotransformation process for vanillin production from ferulic acid using the wild fungal strain Pycnoporous cinnabarinus belonging to the family Basidiomycete. Improvement of biotransformation conditions was performed in two steps; initially a one factor at a time method was used to investigate effects of medium composition variables (i.e., carbon, nitrogen) and environmental factors such as pH on vanillin production. Subsequently, concentrations of medium components were optimized using an orthogonal matrix method. After primary screening, glucose as carbon source and corn steep liquor and ammonium chloride as organic and inorganic nitrogen source, respectively, supported maximum biotransformation of ferulic acid to vanillin. Under statistically optimum conditions vanillin production from ferulic acid by P. cinnabarinus was 126 mg/L with a molar yield of 54%. The overall molar yield of vanillin production increased by 4 times.

INTRODUCTION Biosurfactants are potential surfactants obtained from natural sources and gives several advantages over chemically synthesized surfactants. They are less toxic in nature, biodegradable and environmentally acceptable 1) and hence attracted a great attention. SLs, surface-active glycolipids are one of the well-known members of biosurfactant family produced by microorganisms and extracellularly by Candida bombicola 2-5). These are amphiphilic in nature, i.e. containing both hydrophobic as well as hydrophilic moieties making them able to help in reduction of surface and interfacial tension at the surface and interface respectively 6). The physicochemical properties, such as decrease in interfacial tension, heat and pH stability of many biosurfactants have been shown to be comparable to synthetic surfactants 7). These biosurfactants are widely used in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and cleaning industries. Optimization of media component is one of the most important stages in production of any fermentative product. Single parameter study is time consuming and it will not explain the interactions between independent variables.