Method of producing long-chain alpha-hydroxyalkanoic acids

A method of producing a long-chain alpha-hydroxyalkanoic acid from an alpha olefin having from 10 to 18 carbon atoms which comprises:

• a. adapting a microorganism of the Candida lipolytica species to assimilate said alpha olefin and to produce said acid as the major metabolite of said assimilation by
• a. first cultivating said microorganism in an aqueous nutrient medium containing a hydrocarbon boiling in the kerosene range to obtain a culture of said microorganism,
• 2. then cultivating said culture in a second separate aqueous nutrient medium containing an alpha having from 10 to 18 carbon atoms to obtain a second separate microorganism culture,
• 3. repeating in separate successive cultivation steps the cultivation of step (2), starting with said second separate microorganism culture as inoculum in the first of the successive cultivation steps and utilizing as inoculum in succeeding cultivation steps the microorganism culture obtained in the next preceding cultivation step, until there is obtained a final microorganism culture capable of producing said acid as the major metabolite of said alpha olefin assimilation;
• b. then cultivating in an aqueous nutrient medium containing an alpha olefin having from 10 to 18 carbons said final microorganism culture from step(a)(3);
• and
• c. recovering from cultivation step(b) an alphahydroxycarboxylic acid having the same number of carbon atoms as said alpha olefin.