Biotransformations of monoterpenes by photoautotrophic micro-organisms

Monoterpenes are widely used in food technology, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries and as compounds of agricultural importance. It is known that compounds comprising this class can be transformed by a variety of organisms, namely by: bacteria, fungi, yeasts, plants or isolated enzymes. Biotransformations, as one of the most important tools of green chemistry, allow obtaining new products using whole cells of micro-organisms or isolated enzymes in mild reaction conditions. Therefore, biotransformations of monoterpenes, by different type of reaction such as: epoxidation, oxidation and stereoselective hydroxylation, resulted in the production of so desired, enantiomerically defined compounds that can be advised as natural seem to be interesting. Bearing in mind that such processes are carried out also by easy to maintain, photoautotrophic micro-organisms cultivated at large scale, this paper is focused on biotransformations of acyclic, monocyclic and bicyclic monoterpenes by freshwater or haliphylic cyanobacteria and microalgae on the way of mainly stereoselective hydroxylation. Moreover, aspects of potential industrial application of obtained products in medicine, perfume, cosmetics and food industry are discussed.