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 A1 strain, lovastatin (256 mg/l) at 21 days from the A2 strain and pravastatin (270-300 mg/l) at 14 days from both the A1 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 A1 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.