One-enzyme catalyzed simultaneous plant cell disruption and conversion of released glycoside to aglycone combined with in situ product separation as green one-pot production of genipin from gardenia fruit

• Efficient one-pot production of genipin from gardenia fruit was developed.
• Single cellulase assisted in simultaneous extraction and biotransformation.
• Improved yield was achieved by in situ product extraction with eco-friendly solvent.
• This study presents green route to produce aglycones from plant glycosides.

A direct one-pot production of genipin, an iridoid aglycone, from crude gardenia fruit was developed. The method relied on the use of single cellulase to disrupt plant cells and to cleave off sugar molecules simultaneously, thereby enhancing the release of intracellular iridoids and converting geniposide to genipin. During the biocatalysis, eco-friendly ethyl acetate was used to extract the product, providing the partial purification and the minimization of genipin degradation. By using 10 mg/mL cellulase and 24 h-incubation at 50 °C, pH 4, combined with in situ extraction, genipin with good purity was yielded at 58.83 mg/g, which increased 12.38 and 1.72 times compared with those obtained from the procedures without either the aid of enzyme or in situ extraction, respectively. Therefore, this integrated approach is promising for the production of genipin and should be potentially applied to the preparation of other plant aglycones.

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