Biotechnological Production of Vitamins

Vitamini su prema definiciji esencijalna mikrohranjiva potrebna u tragovima, koje sisavci ne mogu sintetizirati. Osim njihove in vivo hranjive i fiziološke uloge kao faktora rasta ljudi, životinja, biljaka i mikroorganizama, oni se sve više koriste kao aditivi za hranu/krmiva, u medicinsko-terapeutske svrhe, te kao zdravstvena i tehnička pomoćna sredstva. Proizvodnja vitamina kemijskom sintezom ili njihova ekstrakcija iz poznatih izvora ima velike nedostatke, pa se takva proizvodnja sve više nastoji zamijeniti biotehnološkim procesima. Za neke od tih spojeva već postoje ili se tek razvijaju procesi koji koriste mikroorganizme ili alge. Različite metode poput optimiranja podloge, mutacije i odabira, genetičkog inženjeringa i konverzije s pomoću biokatalizatora primjenjuju se za poboljšanje proizvodnje vitamina. Ovaj rad opisuje sadašnje stanje u proizvodnji vitamina biotehnološkim procesima i njihovo značenje u usporedbi s postojećim kemijskim procesima.Vitamins are defined as essential micronutrients that are required in trace quantity and cannot be synthesized by mammals. Apart from their in vivo nutritional and physiological roles as growth factors for men, animals, plants and microorganisms, vitamins are now being increasingly introduced as food/feed additives, as medical-therapeutic agents, as health aids, and also as technical aids. Production of vitamins by chemical synthesis, or extraction from their known sources has serious disadvantages. This led to an increased interest in substituting these processes with biotechnological processes. For several of these compounds microbiological and algal processes exist, or are rapidly emerging. Different methods like media optimization, mutation and screening, genetic engineering and biocatalyst conversion have been used for improvement of the production of vitamins. The survey describes the current state of vitamin production by biotechnological processes and their significance, as compared to the existing chemical processes