Determination of optimal ph for increased steroid biotransformation process

Abstract

The development of steroids is one of the most fascinating fields of medicine, chemistry and industrial microbiology, mainly due to the fact that many discrepant steroids, such as bile acids and sex hormones, among others, are essential for biological processes. The term biotransformation occurs due to the process in which substances such as the drug, nutrients, waste and toxins within an organism undergo chemical reactions, being generally measured by enzymes, which turns it into an opposite compound of the unusual administered. For the treatment of some diseases the administration of steroids or hormones has been necessary but due to their complexity, obtaining the synthetic form of these molecules is prohibitively expensive. Experiments with biotransformations began; This may occur with the presence of the microorganism or the enzyme may be produced by microorganism growth and subsequent extraction. The biggest advantage of biotransformation over chemical synthesis is selectivity and process economics. Due to the wide range of options in steroid biotransformation, it was now feasible to obtain new molecules not previously found in nature, which led to the creation of better drugs with less side effects. Studies with a strain of the fungus Curvularia lunata showed that pH control is necessary to keep the enzyme at the best production level, and that the maximum growth of the microorganism was reached when the pH was controlled at 7.0. That said, the results found between the experimental conditions were compared to the percentages of the steroid formed against the percentage of starting steroid, pH, growth and sterility.