Oxidation of aromatic aldehyde to aromatic carboxylic acid by Burkholderia cepacia TM1 isolated from humus.

Burkholderia cepacia TM1 isolated from humus was able to oxidize aromatic aldehydes to the corresponding aromatic carboxylic acids with an extreme by high yield in distilled water containing only the aromatic aldehyde as the substrate. The molar yields of vanillic acid from vanillin, p-hydroxybenzoic acid from p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, and syringic acid from syringaldehyde were approximately 94%, 92% and 72%, respectively. Until the added aromatic aldehyde was significantly consumed, consumption of the produced acid hardly occurred. The findings of this study indicate that an appropriate reactor residence time for continuous production can be set, and that aromatic carboxylic acid can be produced efficiently and continuously from the corresponding aldehyde.