Abstract

Androstenedione (AD) and androstadienedione (ADD) are steroids intermediate valuable for the production of steroid medicaments. Microbial bioconversion of phytosterols to produce AD is a well researched area in synthesis of steroid hormones. The current study focused on bioconversion of β, sitosterol as a plant phytosterol into androstenedione (AD) and androstadienedione (ADD) optimized by Ochrobactrum anthropi strain (ATCC 49188). The study involved the effect of some physiological and biochemical factors affecting on the bioconversion process such as inoculums size, inoculum age, pH of the fermentation medium No.Ⅰ, (g/L) glucose 10 K2HPO4 0.75, KH2PO4 3, (NH4)2SO4 1, MgSO4 .7H2O 1, 8 hydroxyqunioline 0.8), temperature 30as well as substrate concentration. The results showed that the maximum AD (39.29%) output was obtained by using fermentation medium No.Ⅰ at pH 8; inoculum size 2ml/100 ml; 24h inoculum age, temperature 30and 15mg/100ml substrate concentration.

Key words: androstenedione (AD), androstadienedione (ADD), Phytosterols, Microbial bioconversion, Ochrobactrum anthropic