Innovative Utilization of Bamboo for High-Yield Vitexin Production: Strategies and Optimization

Bamboo sugars such as glucose and cellobiose can be transformed into valuable biochemicals. Cellobiose, a glycosyl precursor, enables the synthesis of C-glycosyl flavonoids, such as vitexin, a bioactive compound in bamboo extracts. This study engineered a recombinant strain to produce vitexin from apigenin and cellobiose. Optimizing conditions increased the vitexin production to 3092 mg/L. To reduce the production cost of vitexin, the enzymatic hydrolysate of alkali-pretreated bamboo was utilized to replace cellobiose, serving as both the glycosyl donor precursor and the carbon source for the recombinant strain to produce vitexin. By optimization of the conditions of bamboo pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis with peptone, 100 g of bamboo can produce 18.1 g of cellobiose and 11.3 g of glucose, and the cellobiose and glucose can be used to produce 37.9 g of vitexin in the recombinant strain. This study provides a novel method for the production of vitexin using enzymatic hydrolysis of bamboo cellulose.