Patent ID: 6902912

Claim:
A fermentation process for producing glutathione which comprises: (a) obtaining a biomass pre-culture by pre-cultivating, in aerobic conditions, a strain of at least one yeast genus selected from Saccharomyces, Hansenula, Pichia, Candida, Cryptococcus, Schizosaccharomyces, Sporobolomyces, Bullera, Bulleromyces, Filobasidiella, Lipomyces, Rhodotorula or a stable mutant thereof, wherein the glutathione content per biomass unit is higher than 1.2% w/w; (b) cultivating, in aerobic conditions, of the resulting biomass pre-culture such that the density of the resulting cultured biomass is higher than 50 g/l; (c) activating the cultured biomass by resting the cells in non-growing conditions; and (d) recovering glutathione from the cultured biomass resulting from step (c) by extracting glutathione, at a pH equal to or lower than 6, and optionally purifying the resulting glutathione.