Production and purification of statins from Aspergillus terreus strains

Lovastatin, mevastatin, pravastatin and monacolin J were produced using Aspergillus terreus strains, Mevastatin (170 mg/l) was obtained at 14 days from the Al strain, lovastatin (256 mg/l) at 21 days from the A2 strain and pravastatin (270-300 mg/l) at 14 days from both the Al and A2 strains grown on defatted soybean flour, Similar yields of monacolin J (5-10 mg/l) were detected for both strains, Fermentation carried out by adding glycerol to Al 7-d old cultures gave 244 mg lovastatin/l at 14 days employing whole soybean flour, A new extraction procedure was applied to an A2 19-d old culture on the mycelium and the culture filtrate separately, Recovery yield showed that 83% lovastatin was associated with the mycelium and 17% was free in the culture filtrate.