Corynebacterium cultures, isolated from soil by the use of n-paraffin as the sole carbon source have been shown to bring about significant oxidation of a new compound, dl-cis tetrahydro-2-oxo-4-n-pentyl-thieno-(3, 4-d)-imidazoline (dl-TOPTI), in the presence of hydro-carbon. The co-oxidation products were isolated from culture broth and identified as dl-biotinol and dl-biotin by IR, NMR and MS spectroscopies.
