Patent ID: 8501444

Claim:
A method for making lipstatin or tetrahydrolipstatin (orlistat), comprising the steps of: a) conducting fermentation of a medium comprising a lipstatin-producing microorganism and a carbon source to allow growth of the microorganism; b) feeding to the microorganism a combination of linoleic acid or esters or salts thereof and at least one omega-9 fatty acid, each at a concentration of 0.01 g/L-10.0 g/L; and c) controlling the linoleic acid and the at least one omega-9 fatty acid concentrations throughout the fermentation to obtain a residual linoleic acid concentration of 0.02 g/L-0.3 g/L and a residual omega-9 fatty acid concentration of 0.1 g/L-2.0 g/L in the fermentation process for producing lipstatin or tetrahydrolipstatin; d) isolating the lipstatin made in at least step (c); e) optionally converting the lipstatin made in step (d) to tetrahydrolipstatin/orlistat; and optionally f) determining the yield co-efficient of the produced lipstatin or tetrahydrolipstatin.