Research Team Creates a major aromatic component of the Scent of Jasmine from Microorganisms​

Amazing stuff! Intoxicating! I toast to that with my next cup of Jasmine tea! 😊

"... research team ... revealed the development of the first microbial process to effectively produce benzyl acetate, an industrially useful compound, from renewable carbon sources such as glucose.  ..."

From the abstract:

"Benzyl acetate is a valuable aromatic ester compound with diverse applications in the flavor and fragrance industries. However, its current synthesis primarily relies on inefficient plant extraction methods or chemical/enzymatic processes that depend on non-renewable substrates. Here we report a sustainable approach to benzyl acetate production from D-glucose using metabolically engineered Escherichia coli strains. We explored both benzoic acid-dependent and -independent synthetic pathways by either dividing the pathway between upstream and downstream strain pairs or by introducing the complete pathway into single, integrated strains. In an optimized two-phase extractive fermentation process, a delayed co-culture of an upstream strain that converts D-glucose to benzoic acid and a downstream strain that transforms benzoic acid into benzyl acetate yielded 2,238.3 ± 171.9 mg l−1 of benzyl acetate from D-glucose in 108 h (or 2,204.0 ± 192.2 mg l−1 in 96 h). The economic competitiveness of the microbial process for sustainable benzyl acetate production was also assessed by techno-economic analysis."

KAIST Research Team Creates the Scent of Jasmine from Microorganisms​ The fragrance of jasmine and ylang-ylang, used widely in the manufacturing of cosmetics, foods, and beverages, can be produced by direct extraction from their respective flowers. In reality, this makes it difficult for production to meet demand, so companies use benzyl acetate, a major aromatic component of the two fragrances that is chemically synthesized from raw materials derived from petroleum.

A microbial process for the production of benzyl acetate (open access)

Figure 1. Production of benzyl acetate through co-culture of upstream and downstream strains harboring the benzoic acid-dependent pathway.