A Biotechnological Approach to Microbial Based Perfumes and Flavours

Flavours and fragrances are generally extracted from plants and animals since times immemorial. The structure of flavour compounds from plant sources range from single to complex substances. Their chemical structures are elucidated by the modern sophisticated techniques like mass spectroscopy and NMR that is followed by their chemical synthesis. Flavours are generally used as food additives and they are mostly produced through artificial means i.e. chemical synthesis or by extraction from plant and animal sources. Flavours and fragrances are widely used in food, beverage, feed, cosmetic, detergent, chemical and pharmaceutical formulations. Recently due to consumer’s increased interest and health awareness in natural products, there has been more stress towards the use of natural fragrances and flavours obtained from natural sources. Research has shown that microbes can also be used to produce aromas and fragrances. Man is using microbial systems to impart new aromas to the fermentation products like beer, wine, cheese etc from ages. Vanillin (1874) and coumarin (1868) were the first synthetic fragrance and flavour compounds made available for use in the food industry. The worldwide demand of flavours and fragrances was estimated to be US$ 16 billion in the year 2013. Most of these flavouring and fragrance compounds are prepared by chemical technology and only a small fraction of the demand are met from plant or through microbial sources [1].