Observations, in vitro, on N-nitrosation by intracellular extracts of some microorganisms isolated from palm wine.

Soluble fractions of sonicates derived from cell suspensions of some bacteria and yeasts, which contaminate palm sap, enhanced nitrosamine formation when each fraction was incubated, under sterile conditions, at a pH of 7.0 +/- 0.2, with either diphenylamine, dimethylamine or diethylamine and sodium nitrite and glucose as substrates. The intrinsic factor in the extracts, which was responsible for the N-nitrosation reactions, was heat labile and might be an enzyme; a so-called 'N-nitrosatase'.