Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu
Fermentation Technology Division
Overview
Fermentation Technology Division focuses on
microbial biodiversity research / IPR leading to
the production of novel bioactive products,
biocatalysts, biotransformed products for human
health and enhanced agriculture crop yields
through microbial fertilizer, biocides and metal
gluconates. This division is well equipped with
latest fermentors from lab scale to pilot scale 4KL
with supporting downstream processing facilities.
molecules.

Competencies

Isolation,
characterization
&
identification of microbes, screening for
specific microbial enzymes and
secondary metabolites, enantio/ regiospecific biotransformations.

Chemo-profiling of biocatalysts,
Biotransformations

Multi-functional fermentation scale up
facility from lab to pilot scale ranging
from 5 to 4000L capacity and
downstream processing

Technology
development
for
agricultural crop yield increase by
biofertilizers, biocontrol agents and
micronutrients.
Missions and goals


Isolation of microbial strains of
industrial importance and their
characterization for novel bioactive
products, biocatalysts for health,
agriculture
Production of noel bioactives,
biocatalysts for health and agriculture
from
novel
endophytes
and
extremophiles

Industrial scale production of microbial
enzymes and high value microbial
products from wild type and genetically
modified strains

Biotransformations using free and
immobilized
enzymes
for
the
production of industrially important
Helping Indian industries for scale up of
processes and building confidence in
Indian industry through transferring
technology and training on microbial
fermentation processes.
Fermentation Technology Division, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu
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Area of research




facility from lab scale to pilot scale (54KL capacity) with supporting downstream processing facilities for
bacterial, fungal and yeast based
products.
Isolation of new microorganisms and
endophytes to develop library of
microorganisms for novel bioactives
and biocatalysts.
Detailed
chemo
profiling
of
enzymes/microorganisms,
biotransformations, resolution of chiral
drugs/drug intermediates.
Endophytes isolation & characterization
from selected plants for high value
products
Identification of microbial strains for
various
industrially
important
products/enzymes and their large scale
production

Biotransformation for industrial process
development using microbes/ enzymes
and immobilized enzymes for making
the bioprocess easy to operate

Metabolic engineering of microbes for
metabolite production and yields
improvement

Microbial processes for agriculture crop
yield increase through biofertilizers,
biocontrol agents and micronutrients

Cost effective and environmental
friendly processes development for
Gluconates
(Their
use
as
neutraceuticals, human and veterinary
pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics and
crop yields increase)
State-of–art equipment required for
Microbiology, Enzymology and Bioprocess development

Centrifuges ranging from laboratory to
industrial scale

HPLC

GC
Current Research

Bioprospecting microbial diversity of
J&K
Microbial strains isolated from various
niches of Leh (Ladakh), Drass (Kargil)
area (water samples from hot water
springs of
Chumathong- 16000Ft,
Pugga, Nobra 15000Ft and Cold water
Lakes of Karzok (Tsomorari 15075 Ft.),
Tsoker, Pangong; Soil samples from
Karzok 15075Ft, Tanglangla 17500Ft,
Changla Pass 17830Ft, Pangong, Nobra
(North and south Pullu) 16000-17000Ft,
Khurdungla18360Ft. Cataloguing and
characterization of the microbes
according to physiological/ molecular
properties with more emphasis on
halophiles,
psychrotrophs
and
thermophiles is done for exploration for
novel bioactives & biocatalysts.

Facilities


The department has excellent Microprocessor controlled fermentation
Microbial enzymes production and
their chemoprofiling
The prime mandate of the department is
to search for microbial strains for novel
Fermentation Technology Division, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu
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biocatalysis/
industrially
important
enzymes for biotransformation. We
emphasize more on hydrolases (e.g.
lipases, nitrile hydrolyzing enzymes),
lyases (c-c bond forming enzymes) and
oxidoreductases.
Detailed
chemoprofiling the enzymatic activity is done for
the strains screened positive for specific
enzyme activities w.r.t. enantio/ regiospecificity.

technology has been successfully
demonstrated
to
Avesthagen
Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore.
DHA
Microbial enzyme immobilization and
biotransformation:

Microbial
Biofertilizer
and
biopesticides fermentation processes
Enzyme immobilization studies being
done to develop the enzyme based
cheaper, easy to operate and green
processes. Chiral drugs and their
intermediates are well known for
application in pharmaceutical industry,
therefore, we focus on resolution of
important drugs or their intermediates
using free and immobilized enzymes.

We have developed microbial strains of
Rhizobium, Azatobacter, Azospirillum and
further cultivated under certain specifically
defined physico-chemical conditions in
500L fermentor. The fermentation product
can be used for nitrogen fixation to
increase crop yields.
Similarly technology on production of
biocontrol agents by submerged and solid
state fermentation (SSF) has been
transferred to various Indian industries. A
strain of Trichoderma viride has been
developed which profusely sporulate under
submerged fermentation conditions at
certain specifically defined physicochemical conditions. The process has been
scaled up to 500L scale.
Scale up of fermentation processes
for
stereospecific
enzymes
production
Large scale production of enzymes such
as
glucose
oxidase,
glucose
dehydrogenases, lipases, esterases,
nitrilase, glucosidases, cellulases is
being done. Scale-up processes of a few
enzymes have been demonstrated to
industries.


Microbial fermentation process for the
production of DHA (docosahexaenoic
acid)
Microbial industrial Process for metal
gluconates
A fermentation process for metal
gluconates has been developed for
production at 40KL. The technology has
been transferred to industries and is
being produced at 1500TPA.
Fermentation technology for production
of
DHA
(cis-4,
7,10,13,16,19Docosahexaenoic Acid)
has been
developed using marine isolate. The
Fermentation Technology Division, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu
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A single step fermentation process
allows starch hydrolysate to convert
directly to gluconates of Calcium,
Sodium, and Barium etc. has been
developed. The process is highly cost
effective, less energy intensive and
environmental friendly. The gluconate
salts are used in neutraceuticals, human
and veterinary pharmaceuticals, food
and cosmetic industry. The products like
bio potash and bio zinc produced by this
process are also being marketed by the
company through out the country as an
outcome of our technology for crop
yield increase and now many more
industries are approaching us for this
technology package.
Technologies transferred to Indian Industries:
1. Microbial conversion of Glucose to 2ketogluconic acid as an intermediate for
isovitamin C production at 4000L scale (
M/s NATCO Pharma, Hyderabad)
2. Kinetic resolution of (RS) Naproxen at
25Kg scale using yeast cells (M/s Searle
India, Mumbai)
3. Kinetic resolution process for paroxetine
drug intermediate (an anti depressant
drug) at 1.0Kg scale (M/s Cadila Zydus,
Ahmedabad)
4. Kinetic resolution process for separation
of R&S isomers of fluoxetine drug
intermediate (anti depressant drug) at
500g scale (M/s Cadila Zydus,
Ahmedabad)
5. Fermentation process for the production
of Biopesticide and biofertilizer (M/s
Prathista Industries, Hyderabad)
6. Fermentation process for the production
of Metal-D-gluconates (M/s Prathista
Industries, Hyderabad)
7. Fermentation process for the production
of Docosahexaneoic acid (DHA) by
Schizochytrium sp. (M/s Avesthagen
Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore)
8. Metal gluconates fermentation for use in
agriculture (M/s Subash Fertilizer,
Aurangabad)
9. Mass cultivation of Bacillus sphaericus
by fermentation and its Mosquito
Larvicide formulation development (M/s
Sri Biotech Laboratories India Ltd,
Hyderabad)
10. Fermentation process for production of
metal-D-gluconates
for
human,
In recognition of this achievement the
Institute has been honored by various
awards
a) CSIR Technology Award 2001,
b) Vasvik Award 2002 and
c) 64 th All India Industrial Award for best
invention at Hyderabad 2004.
Fermentation Technology Division, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu
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veterinary and agriculture use (M/s Sri
Biotech
Laboratories
India
Ltd,
Hyderabad)
11. A process for protein hydrolysate
production (M/s Glow Biotech, Aligarh)
12. Fermentation process for the production
of Metal-D-gluconates (M/s Sowbhagya
Biotech, Hyderabad)
People
S/NO Name
Expertise
E-mail
1.
Rajinder Parshad
Microbial fermentation technology scale up & down rparshad@iiim.ac.in
stream processing, Enzymology, Biotransformation,
Enzyme
immobilization
and
bioprocesses
development especially resolution of racemic drugs
2.
Asha Chaubey
Microbial Enzymes, bioactives, endophytes, Enzymes achaubey@iiim.ac.in
immobilization, biotransformation and biosensors
3.
Vikash Babu
Enzyme Technology, Biotransformation
4.
R.K. Khajuria
Microbiology,
bioactives
5.
Urmila Jamwal
Microbiology, enzymes, bioactives
6.
Chandji Raina
Microbial Fermentation,
endophytes, bioactives
biofertilizer
&
5
biocontrol
process
Fermentation Technology Division, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu
vikash@iiim.ac.in
agent, rkkhajuria@iiim.ac.in
ujamwal@iiim.ac.in
development, craina@iiim.ac.in
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