Nature 195, 1103 (15 September 1962); doi:10.1038/1951103a0

Isolation of Tetramethylpyrazine from Culture of Bacillus natto, and Biosynthetic Pathways of Tetramethylpyrazine

TAKUO KOSUGE, TAHEI ADACHI & HIROKO KAMIYA

Shizuoka College of Pharmacy, Shizuoka, Japan.

As has been shown in the previous communication¹, we have obtained tetramethylpyrazine from cultures of a strain of Bacillus subtilis and it had the characteristic smell of fermented soybean. The fermented soybean is the favourite food as 'natto' among Japanese people. The isolation of tetramethylpyrazine from 'natto' has been described². Since Bacillus natto is a bacterium which ferments soybean to produce 'natto', we made an attempt to isolate tetramethylpyrazine from cultures of this bacterium.

1. Kosuge, T. , and Kamiya, H. , Nature, 193, 776 (1962). | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
2. Kosuge, T. , Kamiya, H. , and Adachi, T. , J. Pharm. Soc. Japan, 82, 190 (1962). | ChemPort |
3. Baxter, R. A. , and Spring, F. S. , J. Chem. Soc., 1179 (1947).