Biodiversity of Microbes-the potential for Bioindustry
Development in Vietnam.
Duong Van Hop, Nguyen Kim Nu Thao.
Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology,Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
1977-1981 Hanoi University Vietnam : B.Sc
1990-1995 Hanoi University Vietnam : PhD
1996-1999 International Centre for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, New Dehli India : Post -Doctoral
fellowship holder
2000-2002 Plant Institute, Munich University. Germany : Post -Doctoral Humboldt fellowship holder
2007Institute of Microbiology &Biotechnology, Vietnam National University (VNU) ,Hanoi, Vietnam :Director

1. Vietnam's biodiversityVietnam is located in Southeast Asia. The country has a north-to-south distance of 1650 km with a3260 km coastline. Because of the differences in latitude, the climate changes from humid
subtropical in the northern regions to tropical in the southern regions. Moreover, Vietnam has manydifferent types of landscapes such as mountains, highland, delta flat and coastal lower flat as well as
many types of ecosystems such as forest, agriculture, coral reef, mangrove, bay, lakes, hot spring,etc... Vietnam is reported to be one of the centers of high biodiversity in the world with 1300 animal
species and 13700 plant species. Meanwhile, there is limited report on microbial biodiversity. An
additional factor that influences on the microbial biodiversity is a number of 56 ethnic groups livingin the highland and mountain areas through out the country with various life styles and traditional
fermented foods.
2. Microbial biodiversity study and culture collection management
Studies on microbiology have been started from 1960 at some leading institutions and universities
including National Institute of Science and Technology, Hanoi University, Food Industry ResearchInstitute, University of Agriculture, Hanoi University of Technology. The field of study is very
diverse and covers several main topics such as production of biomass and microbial spores,enzymes (native and recombinant), bioactive compounds and microbial biodiversity for various
applications in agriculture, industry, healthcare and environment.
As an agricultural country, since 1993, Vietnam government has implemented priority policy for
science and technology development in which biotechnology is one of the key fields. In this case,the microbial gene management policy was requested. In 1997, Vietnam Ministry of Science andTechnology (MOST) issued Art 2117 for bio-resource management (including plants, animals andmicrobes). Up to date, there are 8 culture collections of microbes maintaining 18000 microbes
mainly isolated from Vietnam (fungi, yeasts, bacteria, actinomycetes, micro algae and virus).
3. Some typical traditional fermented foods
Several most well-known fermented products in Vietnam are described below.
a. Products from cereal (rice, corn and cassava).
- Nep cam (fermented brown rice). This is fermented brown rice, which was first steamed andadded yeast cake (amylase producers containing yeast and bacteria) as starters. All
saccharification and ethanol fermentation processes happen at the same time in anaerobic

condition. The process should be stopped after 4-5 days at room temperature. The product canbe ready to be used or mixed with yogurt. In some cases, glutinous spirit can be added andkept for 2 weeks before use.
- Ruou nep (Glutinous spirit). The process is almost as same as Nep cam but boiled water
should be added after 2-3 days of incubation, kept at room temperature for additional 2-3 days
until no more bubbles appear. Distillation is carried out to collect the glutinous spirit. The
concentration of ethanol in the glutinous spirit can reach 45-55 % (v/v).
- Ruou can. This is a typical solid-state ethanol fermentation. A mixure of steamed rice, yeast
cake (amylase producers including yeast and bacteria) and rice hull is incubated at room
temperature for 1-2 days. The mixture is stored in a closed vase for 2-3 months. Before using,some qualified water should be added for extracting the ethanol from the fermented solid
mixture as rice-wine.
b. Products from meat.
Nem chua (fermented pork) is one kind of lactic fermented meat. A mixture of fresh qualified
pork and boiled pig skin, fried rice fine powder, salt, garlic and pepper is wrapped in
medicinal plant leaves, kept at room temperature for 2-3 days.
c. Products from soybean.
Tuong (fermented soybean). This is a fermented product from the mixture of fried soybean,
steamed glutinous rice and some salt, fermented by Aspergillus oryzae as protease andamylase producers. The mixture is kept at room temperature for 7-15 days.
d. Products from fish.
Nuoc mam (fish sauce). This is a natural fermentation process of fish and salt with 3:1 (w/w)
ratio. The mixture is kept in a wooden containers at room temperature for 3-6 months. Theliquid is extracted as fish sauce
4. Current enzymatic research activities
Research on enzymes from microbes is one of the main field in research activities in Vietnam. In
general, all research activities focus on screening for enzyme producer, purification andcharacterization of the target enzymes. Several studies have been conducted to develop thefermentation process by both liquid and solid state fermentation. The types of studied enzymes arevery diverse involving various kinds of substrates such as protein, carbohydrate, lipid, biomasssources. Several recombinant enzymes for feeds, functional food, diagnosis are also studied. Mostof the research is conducted in several key universities and institutes such as :(1) Institute ofMicrobiology & Biotechnology, VNU, Hanoi, (2) Institute of Biotechnology, (3) Food Industry
Research Institute, (4) Hanoi University of Technology, (5) University of Science, VNU, Hanoi, (6)University of Science, Ho Chi Minh City. However, all those studies are on-going and there is not
any kind of enzymes which have been produced or developed for commercialization for domestic
market. All domestic used enzymes are imported from foreign suppliers.
5. Domestic market demands for enzymes.
At present, all kinds of enzymes from domestic demands are imported from abroad, mainly from
Novozymes, a Chinese company. Several main fields in industry that require imported enzymes aretextile, animal feeds, brewery, food processing and medical diagnosis.
It is reported that the domestic market for enzymes is about 25-40 millions USD.