Oxidation of carbonyl compounds by whole-cell biocatalyst

Acinetobacter junii was found to catalyse the oxidative biotransformation of benzaldehyde, 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, vanillin, 3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde, 3-methoxybenzaldehyde and phthalaldehyde within 48 h of incubation. During this process, the activities of drug-metabolizing enzymes, such as cytochrome P-450 and acetanilide hydroxylase were found to be increased significantly. Such an increase in activity indicates their involvement in the biotransformation processes. The purified biotransformed products of each carbonyl compound were characterized by H-1 NMR and IR spectroscopy, confirming that oxidation to the corresponding carboxylic acid had occurred.