Biosynthesis of natural vanillin—the queen of food ingredients

Abstract:

Vanillin is one of the most important flavoring compounds, and it is widely used in the food industry, spice fragrance, and medicine industry, etc. The annual worldwide consumption is estimated over 16 000 tons. Due to people’s increasing concern for natural food, the production of natural vanillin has become the major point of scientific research. By comparing different production methods of vanillin, we concluded that the microbial transformation to vanillin is the most promising method. Research developments on different biosynthetic pathways for vanillin, as well as the genes and enzymes involved, were discussed. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of each pathway were compared and explained. Finally, the existing bottlenecks in biosynthesis of high-yield natural vanillin with the help of genetic and metabolic engineering, and the potential development direction in this field were elucidated.