Microbial Extraction of Berberine from Phellodendron for Simultaneous Product Purification and Waste Resource Utilization

• Published in: National Academy of Sciences, India. Proceedings. Section B. Biological Sciences India. Proceedings. Section B. Biological Sciences, 2020-09, Vol.90 (3), p.687-694
• Main Authors: Li, Ying, Wei, Jinqing, Ge, Xizhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antimicrobial agents; Bacillus; Bacteria; Behavioral Sciences; Berberine; Biodegradation; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cell walls; Cellulase; Cultivation; Enzymatic activity; Enzymes; Fermentation; Life Sciences; Nucleic Acid Chemistry; Phellodendron; Plant Biochemistry; Research Article; Resource utilization; Soil microorganisms; Traditional Chinese medicine
• ISSN: 0369-8211; 2250-1746
• DOI: 10.1007/s40011-019-01145-2

Berberine (BBR) is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent extracted from plants. However, traditional extraction of BBR depends on the massive consumption of organic solvent, leading to serious environmental pollutions. Here, the authors established a novel microbial method for BBR extraction from pulverized Phellodendron . A microbial consortium consisting of three Bacillus bacteria was constructed based on cellulase enzyme activities. The three bacteria together showed high cellulase enzyme activities for plant cell wall degradation. Moreover, no BBR degradation was detected during the cultivation of each strain. After the cultivation of this Bacillus consortium and pulverized Phellodendron for 56 h, BBR was successfully extracted into the medium. More importantly, the by-products of extraction such as phellodendrine were efficiently dissimilated by bacteria during the extraction, and the peak area of BBR occupied more than 60% of the total in the end of fermentation. The determination of extraction waste indicated that less than 10% of BBR remained in the extraction residue. Finally, the extraction residue that contains Bacillus consortium was applied as fertilizer used in improving soil bacterial diversity. After the cultivation for 9 days, the amount of Bacillus genus in the soil was almost kept the same with initiation, meaning that Bacillus was colonized in the experimental soil. Overall, this is the first report on microbial extraction of chemicals from the plant, and this work provided a new way for resource re-utilization in the traditional Chinese medicine extraction industry.