Microbial Transformation of Curcumin to Its Derivatives with a Novel Pichia kudriavzevii ZJPH0802 Strain

Curcumin, a polyphenolic compound, has shown a wide range of pharmacological activities and has been widely used as a food additive. However, the clinical use of curcumin is limited to some extent because of its poor water solubility and low bioavailability. To overcome these problems, many approaches have been attempted and structural modification of curcumin by microbial transformation has been proven to be an alternative. In this study, we isolated a novel yeast strain Pichia kudriavzevii ZJPH0802 from a soil sample, which is capable of converting curcumin to its derivatives. The transformed products by this strain were evaluated by HPLC, (+) electrospray ionization (ESI)-MSn, and H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance methods. Compared with controls, two new peaks of the transformed broth appeared at retention times of 26 min (I) and 62 min (II) by HPLC analysis. The two transformed products were then further identified by (+) ESI-MSn. The spectrum showed that compound I had an accurate [M+H+NH3](+) ion at m/z 392, [M+H](+) ion at m/z 375, [M+H-H2O](+) ion at m/z 357, and (+) ESI-MS3 spectrum showed that ion at m/z 357 could further form fragment ions at m/z 339, 177, and 163; compound II had an accurate [M+H](+) ion at m/z 373, [M+H-H2O](+) ion at m/z 355, and (+) ESI-MS3 spectrum showed that ion at m/z 355 could further form fragment ions at m/z 219, 179, 177, 163, and 137. These two transformed products thereby were confirmed as hexahydrocurcumin (I) and tetrahydrocurcumin (II).