Biotransformation of indanol, fluorenol and their analogs using tissue-cultured cells and their antimicrobial activity

Biotransformations of indanol, fluorenol and their analogs were performed using carrot (Daucus carota) calli as biocatalysts. Biotransformation of indanol yielded indanone at 24% on day 14, 26% on day 25, and 32% on day 41. Conversely, when indanone was used as a substrate, no reaction was observed. Biotransformation of fluorenol using D. carota produced fluorenone at 22% after 2 days. Fluorenone was obtained at 25% on day 8, 47% on day 10, 54% on day 16, and 79% on day 25. Likewise, no reaction was observed when fluorenone was used as a substrate. We conducted antimicrobial tests on these compounds using the sensitive disc method. Three reagents, indanol, indanone and fluorenol, showed very strong activity (+++) against the Gram-positive bacterium methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. All four tested reagents showed + activity against the fungus C. albicans. Indanol and indanone showed weak activity against Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while fluorenol and fluorenone showed no effect against any Gram-negative bacteria tested.