Microbial production of naringenin

Abstract

Naringenin is a plant natural compound that belongs to the flavonoid subclass of the polyphenolic compounds. It has several recognized health benefits, namely, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antiviral. Given these reported health benefits, an increasing interest in its utilization and incorporation by the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries in medicines and food supplements has emerged. As other secondary metabolites, this compound is present in low amounts within plants, which limits its extraction and further utilization. For this reason, it is mandatory to find efficient, green, and cost-effective new strategies for its production. In the last years, the use of microbial cell factories as chassis for naringenin production has been exploited. Different microorganisms have been engineered and used for its heterologous production, namely, Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Yarrowia lipolytica, and Streptomyces spp. In this chapter, the advances that have been made to achieve the microbial heterologous production of naringenin were summarized. Despite these efforts, obtaining industrially relevant amounts of naringenin to meet its industrial demand remains challenging. Therefore, the main limitations to reach higher production levels of naringenin, as well as relevant strategies to overcome them, are also highlighted in this chapter.