GB802537A - The recovery of metabolic products - Google Patents

Abstract

Metabolic products are recovered from bacterial or mould cultures in a process which comprises adding a specific antiserum to a culture medium to precipitate or agglutinate the bacteria or mould cells, separating the precipitated or agglutinated cells from the culture medium and recovering the desired metabolic product from the separate cells or from the culture liquid. The process is suitable for the recovery of Vitamin B12 from cultures of Propionibacterium freudenreichii, Bacillus megatherium and strains of Streptomyces, the recovery of streptomycin from strains of Streptomyces, the recovery of bacitracin from B. licheniformis and B. subtilis spp. Tracy 1, and for the recovery of Vitamin B12 from Clostridium acetobutylicum in acetone/butanol fermentations. The antiserum may be obtained by injecting an animal with increasing concentrations of the bacterium over a series of days and recovering the antiserum from the animal. In an example Vitamin B12 is obtained by adding a specific antiserum for Propionibacterium freudenreichii to a fermentation broth containing cells of that organism, separating the bacterial cells and liquid by centrifugation, extracting the Vitamin B12 from the cells by treatment under acid conditions, purifying the Vitamin B12 by extraction into an organic solvent and re-extraction into an aqueous phase and recovering the purified Vitamin B12. The example also indicates that optimum agglutination occurs at serum/serum +broth dilutions in the range 1:10,000 to 1:15,000. The process may be employed in the production of bacitracin, the acidified liquid remaining after the cells of B. subtilis have been removed, being extracted with an organic solvent such as butanol, followed by the adsorption of impurities on charcoal, and recovery of the bacitracin by evaporation under reduced pressure.ALSO:An anti-serum for a specific bacterium is obtained by inoculating an animal, for example a rabbit, horse, cow or ox, with increasing concentrations of the bacterium over a period of days. When the antibody titre of the blood is sufficiently high, blood is withdrawn and the serum separated from the coagulated cells by conventional methods. This process is illustrated by the production of an anti-serum specific for Propionibacterium freudenreichii by inoculating a horse. The anti-sera so obtained are utilized in the precipitation of bacteria or mould cells in fermentation process for the production of metabolic products, e.g. Vitamin B12 and bacitracin.