PRODUCTION OF α-GLYCERYLPHOSPHORYLCHOLINE BY FERMENTATION OF CANADIAN WHEAT CULTIVARS

Abstract

α-Glycerylphosphorylcholine (α-GPC) is a cognitive enhancer that accumulates in fermentation media prepared from Canadian wheat cultivars during yeast fermentation. The present study utilized four different Canadian wheat cultivars AC Andrew, AAC Brandon, Transcend and CDC Utmost to produce α-GPC from fermentation. Fermentation by Saccaromyces cerivaceae was conducted at a temperature of 37 °C for seven days (168 h) with samples collected every 24 h. Samples were analyzed using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) with water suppression to quantify ethanol, acetic acid, lactic acid, succinic acid, glycerol, phenethyl alcohol, betaine, and α-GPC. During fermentation of whole wheat, α-GPC accumulated in fermentation media prepared from the four cultivars AC Andrew, AAC Brandon, Transcend and CDC Utmost, but when the medium was pre-treated with the enzyme phospholipase A1, α-GPC increased 26%, 23%, 8% and 37%, respectively. Maximum accumulation of 2.18 g/L of α-GPC and 90.1 g/L of ethanol were observed while other useful coproducts also accumulated. Practical applications of the results of this study involve producing α-GPC and ethanol from yeast fermentation of Canadian Wheat Cultivars with simultaneous production of other useful metabolites. Selection of wheat cultivars that accumulate optimum amounts of metabolites could increase revenues for the ethanol industry and contribute to sustainable wheat economics.