PRODUCTION OF BENZALDEHYDE, BENZYL ALCOHOL AND BENZOIC-ACID BY YEASTS AND BOTRYTIS-CINEREA ISOLATED FROM GRAPE MUSTS AND WINES

The capacity of 100 yeast strains - isolated from grape musts and wines from the Istituto Sperimentale per l'Enologia collection - to produce benzaldehyde, benzyl alcohol and benzoic acid was verified by inoculation into a synthetic nutrient medium (MNS). Schizosaccharomyces and Zygosaccharomyces were strongest in producing benzaldehyde (maximal amount found 1200-mu-g/l) and benzyl alcohol (maximally 523-mu-g/l). Zygosaccharomyces was also most effective in the production of benzoic acid (maximally 536-mu-g/l), followed by Saccharomyces, Cryptococcus, Kloeckera and Torulaspora. The hypothesis was verified that yeasts can be an exogenous source of the benzyl alcohol oxidizing enzyme in grape musts and wines. Wine yeast strains of Saccharomyces spp., Zygosaccharomyces spp. and Schizosaccharomyces spp. fermenting MNS containing 150 g/l glucose, with benzyl alcohol added, transformed this into benzoic acid only when glucose was disappearing, but not into benzaldehyde. No difference was observed between aerobic and anaerobic fermentation conditions. The uptake of benzyl alcohol was rapid in fermentation essays in presence of only 10 g/l glucose and in assimilation essais performed in yeast nitrogen base broth with assimilable carbon compounds added. A catabolic repression by glucose appears likely. Botrytis cinerea was able to transform benzyl alcohol into benzaldehyde and benzoic acid on Czapek-Dox broth with 30 g/l sucrose added. Benzyl alcohol was transformed by wine yeasts into benzoic acid when the concentration of glucose in the mineral medium was less than 10 g/l, but no production of benzaldehyde was observed. A catabolic repression of this transformation by glucose is likely. Botrytis cinerea was able to produce benzaldehyde in a mineral medium with benzyl alcohol and sucrose added.