Fermentation for Vitamins

Vitamins are important for human health because they are involved in various biological functions of the organism. In the structure of a normal person's diet throughout the day, a wide range of vitamins are consumed. As an essential micronutrient, however, vitamins cannot be synthesized by mammals. In modern society, with the emphasis on health and nutrition, vitamins are increasingly used as food/feed additives and medical therapeutics. Fermentation technology offers an alternative to chemical processes for the production of vitamins. Currently, fermentation production is commercially viable for several vitamins, such as vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and vitamin C. Some microorganisms are known for producing vitamins, such as Streptococcus thermophilus and Propionibacterium are used to synthesize folic acid and vitamin B12, respectively. In addition, many efforts have been made to improve the fermentation efficiency for vitamin production, such as strain improvement, metabolic regulation and fermentation process optimization. A range of fermentation conditions, such as incubation temperature, incubation time and medium, can affect the vitamin content of fermented foods.

Vitamins are divided into three categories

Vitamins from whole foods

Naturally occurring vitamins are found in whole foods. However, they are found in small amounts relative to carbohydrates, proteins, fats and phytonutrients.

Vitamin isolates

Vitamin isolates are by far the most common type of vitamin used in supplements. Vitamin isolates are highly potent vitamins that are synthesized in the laboratory. Compared to vitamins found in whole foods, vitamin isolates mean they lack synergistic compounds.

Fermented vitamins

Fermented vitamins can provide the benefits of both whole foods and isolated vitamins. Vitamins obtained through fermentation mimic the way vitamins are found in nature, and they can be concentrated and potent

Benefits of the Vitamins Obtained from Fermentation

Basically, fermented vitamins work with your body's natural abilities. The fermentation process mixes the health benefits of whole foods with the high potency of the isolated ones, producing vitamins that are pure, potent, highly bioavailable, and easy on the body's digestive system.

Fig 1. Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) production using Propionibacterium freudenreichii PTCC1674. (Hedayati, R.; et al. 2020)

Fermentation Techniques & Processes

Streptomyces griseus, Pseudomonas denitrificans, Streptomyces olivaceus and Propionibacterium shermanii are used in the fermentation of vitamins.

Culture medium preparation: For the fermentation of vitamins, glucose is used as the carbon source and ammonium phosphate/ammonium hydroxide is used as the nitrogen source.

Inoculation: Slant cultures with strains of bacteria are inoculated into the inoculum medium. The flask culture is then incubated on a shaker to oxygenate the system.

Production medium

Sterilization: The medium is sterilized under high pressure and heat.

Fermentation: In general, the fermentation of vitamins is basically carried out in the batch mode. Nutrients and inoculum are added to a sterile fermenter, which is then left for a period of time before adding anti-foaming agent. After a large amount of products occur in the fermenter, the fermentated vitamin product is extracted.

Centrifugation: The culture broth is then output and centrifuged to obtain a concentrated cell mass.

Removal of biomass: Impurities are removed using vacuum filters and then the vitamins are separated in liquid form by chromatography process.

Drying

Advantages of Fermentation for Vitamins

low cost
high product quality

Our Services

BOC Sciences provides fermentation CDMO service for vitamins. We offer a seamless one-stop shop for fermentation development from concept to commercialization. Based on our complete strain development platform, we produce vitamins using microbial fermentation by bacteria, fungi or yeast.

Workflow of Our Service

Reference

Hedayati, R.; et al. Optimization of semi-anaerobic vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) production from rice bran oil using Propionibacterium freudenreichii PTCC1674. Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology. 2020. 23. 101444.