3.6. Microbial transformation using Cunninghamella echinulate ATCC 1382

Biotransformation of papaverine using Cunninghamella echinulate ATCC 1382 afforded to one metabolite. The residue (900 mg) was dissolved in 20 ml of methanol/dichloromethane mixture (1:1) and adsorbed onto 900 mg Celite and dried. The adsorbed sample was placed onto a glass column (110 × 2.5 cm) packed with silica after making a slurry in dichloromethane. The column was gradiently eluted with dichloromethane 100% then dichloromethane: methanol (99.5:0.5, 99:1) and 20 ml fractions were collected. Fractions 50–75 were pooled together to give pure 4, as determined by TLC. The metabolite was obtained in the form of white powder (8 mg, R f 0.5 S 2).