BACTERIAL HYDROCARBON OXIDATION II

Abstract

Oxidation of paraffins by a gram-negative coccus results in the accumulation of relatively high molecular weight esters (waxes). Octadecane yields a 1:1 mixture of octadecyl stearate and octadecyl palmitate. Tetradecane yields tetradecyl (myristyl) palmitate. The ester produced from dodecane was not completely identified but was shown to possess a palmityl moiety. Waxes produced from paraffins have an alcohol with the same C skeleton as the paraffin from which it was dervied. The arid moiety of the waxes is plamitic acid, except in the case of octadecane in which half of the total ester produced is made up of octadecyl stearate.