BIOCONVERSION OF FERULIC ACID EXTRACTED FROM JACKFRUIT (ARTOCARPUS HETEROPHYLLUS) SKIN TO VANILLIN USING ASPERGILLUS NIGER BIOTECH 3080

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ABSTRACT

The skin of the jackfruit is not edible, has little commercial value, and adds to worldwide agricultural waste. However, ripe jackfruit skin has the highest concentration of ferulic acid of all the fruit's phenolic components. This research was carried out to look into another source of vanillin as present sources like vanilla orchids are becoming scarce and synthetic vanillin from petroleum and waste from paper industry can have toxic effects on the body. In this study, ferulic acid from jackfruit skin was bioconverted to vanillin using Aspergillus niger BIOTECH 3080. Extraction of phenolic compounds was done using liquid-liquid extraction under reflux conditions for six hours. The phenolic content was 213.35 mg FA/g using the modified Folin Ciocalteau method and analyzed using the Shimadzu UV-VIS spectrophotometry UV-1800. The mean concentration of purified ferulic acid was analyzed at 9.4467 mg FA/g extract using HPLC Shimadzu with SPD-20A UV detector, and C18 column (SDR ODS II Shimadzu). Feeding of 0.5 ml of ferulic acid to Aspergillus niger BIOTECH 3080 in Sabouraud Dextrose Broth (SDB) was done at day 2, day 4, and day 6, and was continued for seven days at 30°C and above 90% relative humidity. HPLC analysis of the bioconversion process yielded 27.093 mg vanillin/L extract. The calculated difference between the retention time of the bioconverted vanillin and the commercial vanillin was 0.03 minutes with a deviation error of  1.99%. The values are within the standards set by the European Commission Decision and SANTE/SANCO guidelines for chromatography analysis. 

Keywords: alkaline hydrolysis, biological agents, biotechnology, aspergillus niger, ferulic acid, vanilla