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Abstract
Several industrial waste materials were screened for their sterol content. The possibility
of using these industrial by-products as sterol sources for the microbiological production
of 4-androsten-3,17-dione (AD) and 1,4-androsta-diene-3,17-dione (ADD) was investigated.
Two methods of obtaining the sterol fraction from wastes were developed. Sterol-rich
(96-98%) fractions were isolated in a yield above 70%, from a tall-oil effluent of
a paper pulp industry and from edible-oil deodorizates. These fractions were subsequently
used as a substrate for microbial degradation by a Mycobacterium sp. strain and proved
to be easily converted to AD and ADD.