화학공학소재연구정보센터
Separation Science and Technology, Vol.53, No.6, 903-909, 2018
Soxhlet extraction of mucic acid from fungal biomass
Biologically produced mucic acid may form crystals before being separated from the biomass. Here we use Soxhlet extraction of fungal biomass to obtain mucic acid that was otherwise lost when separating biomass from the supernatant. Culture supernatant was used to extract the biomass, avoiding dilution of the mucic acid while retaining a cell-free suspension. Soxhlet extraction of biomass recovered 7% of total mucic acid produced at pH 4 and 24% at pH 6. The potential for mucic acid to cyclize to the 1,4-lactone was investigated by solid state NMR, confirming that very little lactone was present after the crystallization step.