Biotransformation of 1, 8-Cineole by Penicillium citrinum Isolated from Soil Sample in Jordan

Biological transformation of cheap and available compounds can be achieved by many microorganisms. Cineole (1, 8- cineole ) forms more than 50% of the essential oil extracted from some medicinal plants in Jordan. This study was aimed to investigate the ability of locally isolated Penicillium citrinum to biotransform 1, 8- cineole to valuable products. Cineole was added to a five days old P. citrinum culture to get 0.1 % final concentration and incubated for two weeks with shaking. The culture was extracted with diethyl ether the extract was subjected to gas chromatography - mass spectrometric (GC-MS) analysis. The result showed that two new products were identified as Exo-2-Hydroxycineole (1, 3, 3-Trimethyl-2- oxabicyclo[2.2.2]octan-6-ol) and hydroxy-1, 8-cineole (cis-1, 3, 3-Trimethyl-2-oxabicyclo[2.2.2]octan-5-ol) using mass spectral comparison database libraries.