Short communicationPurification of biomevalonate from fermentation broth and conversion of biomevalonate into biomevalonolactone

•65 g/L of bio-MVA was obtained by pH-stat fed-batch fermentation of E. coli.•Over 90% of bio-MVA was converted into (R)-bio-MVL by using phosphoric acid.•(R)-bio-MVL with a chiral purity of over 99% was obtained.

Mevalonate (MVA) is a key compound of living organisms including bacteria, plants, and humans. MVA and mevalonolactone (MVL), a lactonized form of MVA, are important for pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical, and biotechnological applications. Although (R, S)-MVA with 50% enantiomeric purity is mainly produced by chemical synthesis, recently, microbial fermentation processes for MVA production have been considered as an alternative to the chemical synthesis because of high enantiomeric purity [(R)-MVA] and high titer. In the present study, bio-MVA produced by a fermentative process was decolorized by a charcoal-based method and then chemically transformed into bio-MVL without byproducts by means of phosphoric acid as an acid catalyst. The final bio-MVL was (R)-MVL with over 99% enantiomeric purity according to 1H NMR analysis.