Development of a biotransformation process of hydroperoxides into green leaf volatiles using sugar beet leaves

Natural green leaf volatiles (GLVs) are commonly sole AS aldehydic and alcoholic flavors; their synthesis is a great challenge for industry. Especially, the bioconversion step of fatty acid hydroperoxides into aldehydes by the hydroperoxide lyase (HL). This widely studied enzyme is present in cell membranes of green organs from superior plants. Extracted from its natural condition, HL is subject to a suicidal behavior, being irreversibly inhibited by its own substrate. Furthermore, GLVs produced are highly volatile and quickly degraded by other plant enzymes. Thence, high GLVs levels in industrial production are very difficult to obtain, but several biotechnological tools could be developed to enhance this natural synthesis level more than hundred times. This paper will describe a new method for GLVs production in bioreactor using sugar beet leaves as source of HL. One step reaction, including hydroperoxide metabolisation and GLVs extraction, is performed during a short time process. Downstream processing to dispose of natural and pure GLVs molecule will also be discussed.