Suntory Holdings Limited

Asako Okada

Masaaki Nakai

Yuko Fukui

Eiichiro Ono

Yukihiro Aoshima

Kenji Katano

The invention provides an enzyme having a lignan-hydroxylating activity, particularly an enzyme capable of catalyzing the reaction of transferring a hydroxyl group to a lignan, an enzyme capable of catalyzing the hydroxylation of piperitol to 9-hydroxylpiperitol or pinoresinol to 9-hydroxylpinoresinol. The invention provides a polypeptide having a lignan-hydroxylating activity; a polynucleotide encoding the same; a vector or transformant comprising the polynucleotide; a method for producing a polypeptide having a lignan-hydroxylating activity which comprises using the transformant; and so on. The transformant wherein the polynucleotide is expressibly introduced is useful for the hydroxylation of a lignan or for the production of a product using the same in the food sector and a variety of industry sectors.

Lignan hydroxylase

To provide a process and an apparatus by means of which a composition that contains episesamin in a concentration greater than 50 wt % on the basis of the sum weight of sesamin and episesamin can be produced conveniently and at high yield. There are provided a process and an apparatus which comprise the step of applying epimerization to sesamin or a sesamin-containing composition so that at least part of the sesamin is converted to episesamin and the step of selectively crystallizing episesamin by recrystallization and by means of which a composition that contains episesamin in a concentration greater than 50 wt % can be produced conveniently and at high yield.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Asako Okada