Screening of dl-Menthyl Ester Hydrolyzing Microorganisms and Species Specificity of Microbial Esterases

Abstract

Many microorganisms including bacteria, yeast and fungi, were found to be capable of hydrolyzing dl-menthyl acetate assymmetrically by which l-menthyl acetate was preferentially hydrolyzed to form l-menthol. However l-menthol having various optical purities were obtained by the different microorganisms.
Fatty acid portions of dl-menthyl esters had serious influence on the optical purities of the hydrolysis products afforded by microbial esterases.
Bacteria and fungi can hydrolyze isomenthyl acetate, but yeasts cannot, and this is a great advantage in the isolation of l-menthol from mixture of steric isomers of menthol.
Citronellol isolated from microbial hydrolyzate of dl-citronellyl acetate was optically inactive.