Constructing an efficient and safe producer strain is a prerequisite for biosynthetic production of 2’-fucosyllactose. The number and technical content of recent patents on 2’-fucosyllactose biosynthesis applied for in China are reviewed in this paper, indicating that over 80 percent of the patents focused on the construction of recombinant strains by optimizing the metabolic pathways, overexpressing 2’-fucosyllactose biosynthesis-related enzyme genes, and developing more safe and efficient host strains. However, after a review of China’s patented technologies in this regard, we found that research on the biosynthetic production of 2’-fucosyllactose in a pilot scale or above is weak, and there is a lacuna in utility and industrially oriented patented technologies, which will bottleneck the 2’-fucosyllactose biosynthesis industry in China.

Lactulose, also known as isomerized lactose, is a reducing disaccharide made from the dairy industry by-product lactose. Its concentrate is an important over-the-counter (OTC) drug that has a significant therapeutic effect on acute or chronic constipation and hepatic encephalopathy. The methods that have been developed to produce lactulose include the chemical method, β-galactosidase method and epimerase method. In recent years, the epimerase method has aroused extensive attention due to the high conversion rate it yields, which makes it a promising candidate for lactulose preparation although currently there exist some bottlenecks like the high proportion of epilactose as a by-product and the rather low enzyme activity. This article reviews the history and current status of research on the methods for lactulose production, in the hope of providing reference for basic theoretical research and industrialization in this field.