Conjugated Linoleic Acid Production in Pine Nut Oil: A Lactiplantibacillus plantarum Lp-01 Fermentation Approach

Abstract

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a class of bioactive fatty acids that exhibit various physiological activities such as anti-cancer, anti-atherosclerosis, and lipid-lowering. It is an essential fatty acid that cannot be synthesized by the human body and must be derived from dietary sources. The natural sources of CLA are limited, predominantly relying on chemical and enzymatic syntheses methods. Microbial biosynthesis represents an environmentally benign approach for CLA production. Pine nut oil, containing 40–60% linoleic acid, serves as a promising substrate for CLA enrichment. In the present study, we developed a novel method for the production of CLA from pine nut oil using Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) Lp-01, which harbors a linoleic acid isomerase. The optimal fermentation parameters for CLA production were determined using a combination of single-factor and response surface methodologies: an inoculum size of 2%, a fermentation temperature of 36 °C, a fermentation time of 20 h, and a pine nut oil concentration of 11%. Under these optimized conditions, the resultant CLA yield was 33.47 μg/mL. Gas chromatography analysis revealed that the fermentation process yielded a mixture of c9, t11CLA and t10, c12 CLA isomers, representing 4.91% and 4.86% of the total fatty acid content, respectively.