Effect of furfural, vanillin and syringaldehyde on Candida guilliermondii growth and xylitol biosynthesis

Xylitol is a five-carbon sugar alcohol with established commercial use as an alternative sweetener and can be produced from hemicellulose hydrolysate. However, there are difficulties with microbiological growth and xylitol biosynthesis on hydrolysate because of the inhibitors formed from hydrolysis of hemicellulose. This research focused on the effect of furfural, vanillin, and syringaldehyde on growth of Candida guilliermondii and xylitol accumulation from xylose in a semi-synthetic medium in microwell plate and bioreactor cultivations. All three compounds reduced specific growth rate, increased lag time, and reduced xylitol production rate. In general, increasing concentration of inhibitor increased the severity of inhibition, except in the case of 0.5 g vanillin per liter, which resulted in a faster late batch phase growth rate and increased biomass yield. At concentrations of 1 g/l or higher, furfural was the least inhibitory to growth, followed by syringaldehyde. Vanillin most severely reduced specific growth rate. All three inhibitors reduced xylitol production rate approximately to the same degree.