Microbial demethylation of dimethylsulfoniopropionate and methylthiopropionate

Abstract

As discussed in chapter 1 , there is an increased interest in the production of certain natural sulfur-containing flavor compounds or flavor precursors. Production of natural flavors is becoming increasingly important, because consumerts end to prefer natural compounds for health reasons. With the aid of extraction techniques it is possible to obtain flavors directly from plant material, but these methods are time consuming and expensive, because the most interesting flavors are present in only very low concentrations. A more recent method to produce flavors is based on a biotechnological approach where natural precursors, isolated mainly from plant material, can be convertedt o the desired flavor in a bioreactor with the aid of enzymes and/or microorganisms.