De novo biosynthesis of paracetamol from glucose by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli

Background: Paracetamol is among the most commonly used of all medications, widely accepted as a safe and effective analgesic/antipyretic for mild-to-moderate pain and fever. The biosynthesis of paracetamol from renewable sugars has not been reported so far, due to the lack of natural biosynthetic pathways. Results: In this study, we demonstrated for the first time the development of an E. coli cell factory for production of paracetamol from glucose. First, p-aminobenzoic acid, an intermediate of folic acid in microorganism, is selected as precursor substrates for the production of paracetamol. Second, a monooxygenase MNX1 from Candida parapsilosis CBS604 that can efficiently catalyze the decarboxylation and hydroxylation of p-aminobenzoic acid into corresponding p-aminophenol and another N-acetyltransferase PANAT from Pseudomonas aeruginosa that can efficiently catalyze the esterification of acetyl-CoA and p-aminophenol to form paracetamol were discovered. Finally, an engineered E. coli that allows production of paracetamol from simple carbon sources was established. Conclusions: The present study opens up a new direction for engineering microbial production of paracetamol from cheap and readily-available renewable raw materials such as sugars and cellulose in the future.

“Sweet” ionic liquid gels: materials for sweetening of fuels

Ionic liquid gels, which are derived from renewable sugars, have been efficiently used as sorbent systems in desulfurisation of fuels.

Conversion of concentrated sugar solutions into 5-hydroxymethyl furfural and furfural using Brönsted acidic ionic liquids

Using recyclable and green ionic liquids in catalytic amounts, renewable sugars are dehydrated into furans with high yields.

Renewable Sugars Hydrolyzed from Banana Pseudo-Stem Using Different Chemical Pretreatments

Cellulose and hemicelluloses are the main building block of plant cell wall and are known as a natural polymer that usually used in the industries. Cellulose and hemicelluloses could be used as a feedstock for second generation biofuel production where it is subjected to hydrolysis into sugar after which it can be converted into bioethanol through fermentation process. In this study, the matured banana pseudo-stem is used as the source of hydrolyzing sugar from natural material. The objective of this research is to study the effects of different chemical pretreatments (sodium hydroxide, mixture of sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide, sulphuric acid, mixture of sulphuric acid and hydrogen peroxide) and hydrolysis time (1-5 hours) on the sugar yield from banana pseudo-stem. Results showed that, after 3 hours hydrolysis most of the sugars from all chemical pretreatments reduced gradually. Analysis of sugar contents from acid hydrolysis process using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) showed that all the samples contained glucose, xylose, and arabinose where the highest glucose (16.02 mg/L) obtained from fiber treated with mixture of 1.0 M sulphuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. In addition, both highest xylose (64.23 mg/L) and arabinose (45.78 mg/L) are obtained from fiber treated with 0.5 M sodium hydroxide.