Bacteria, phytochemical reduction

The previously discussed reductions by yeast of isovaleraldehyde to isoamyl alcohol, of p-xyloquinone to p-xylohydroquinone and of sodium thiosulfate to hydrogen sulfide have also been accomplished with Bacterium coli and Bacterium lactis aerogenes. Phytochemical reduction of d,l-valeraldehyde (methylethylacetaldehyde) with Termobacterium mobile Lindner Pseudomonas Lindneri) takes a practically quantitative course and yields an amyl alcohol containing 17 % excess of the dextrorotatory component. Cahill achieved especially favorable results by the reduction of isovaleraldehyde with growing bacteria instead of with their mass cultures. 

In the steroid series phytochemical reductions also have been accomplished by means of bacteria, not always with pure cultures. ... 

The reduction of butyric acid seems to proceed by way of n-butyr-aldehyde. The phytochemical reduction to butyl alcohol previously demonstrated for yeast (see p. 78) has also been carried out with bacteria. Regarding the reduction of butyric acid to n-butanol, papers of Bernhauer and coworkers, Kluyver and Donker, Stiles, Peterson and Fred, Janke and Siedler and Wood, Brown and Workman should be consulted. Peynaud ascribes also to wine yeast the ability to... 

Mixed cultures of a broad variety of microorganisms, especially of bacteria and yeasts in particular have been used for millenia to produce dairy products, bread, and alcoholic beverages. The foundations for a scientific approach, however, were laid by L. Pasteur [1] in 1862 by using a pme culture of Bacterium xylinum to transform [2] ethanol into acetic acid. In 1874, Dumas [3] reported the reduction of sulfur to hydrogen sulfide by fermenting yeast, Sacdiaromyces ceremsiae. The first reduction ("phytochemical reduction") of an organic molecule imder anaerobic conditions was performed by Windisch [4] in 1898, and fiufuryl alcohol 2 was obtained from furfural 1 (Figure 21.1). 

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