[Physiological role of vegetable oils during penicillin biosynthesis].

Addition of liquid vegetable oils to nutrient media decreased the intensity of penicillin biosynthesis. The unfavourable effect of the oils was more pronounced at the beginning of the process while they were not completely utilized. Sunflower oil is a readily assimilated source of carbon. The rate of its consumption is higher than that of whale oil or lactose. Like the majority of readily oxidized sources of carbon, sunflower oil must be a repressor of beta-galactosidase and the enzymes of penicillin biosynthesis.