To the wet mycelia (10 g) was added a small volume of chloroform. The mixture was allowed to stand at ambient temperature for 30 minutes. To the mixture was added distilled water (20 ml). After allowing to stand at ambient temperature for a day, the mixture was centrifuged to give enzyme extracts (20 ml). The enzyme extracts was added to an aqueous solution (300 ml) containing cephalosporin C sodium.dihydrate (25 mg/ml). The reaction mixture was stirred at pH 4.5 and 30° C. for 10 hours until cephalosporin C in the mixture disappeared. To the resultant mixture was added activated charcoal (3 g) and the mixture was filtered. The filtrate was adjusted to pH 7.0 and concentrated under reduced pressure to give crystals, to which was added a small volume of 75% aqueous ethanol and the mixture was triturated. The crystals were separated by filtration and dried in vacuo to give crystalline deacetylcephalosporin C (3.6 g).
