Biomass production of Penicillium camemberti was investigated in selected media, including synthetic media supplemented with either linoleic acid or soybean oil and a dairy medium containing soybean oil and found to be 6.5, 8.3 and 61 g/l, respectively. The presence of soybean oil in the synthetic medium enhanced the production of 1-octen-3-ol, in vitro, by a factor of 8 compared to that obtained with the same synthetic medium containing linoleic acid. The use of the dairy medium in its liquid form or in its acid-gellified milk state as culture media enhanced the production, in vitro, of 1-octen-3-ol by 1.2- and three-fold, respectively, by the enzymic extracts obtained from the biomasses of P. camemberti compared to that found using the synthetic medium containing linoleic acid. However, the enzymatic production of 1-octen-3-ol by the P. camemberti extracts obtained using the dairy media was lower than that found using the synthetic medium supplemented with soybean oil. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.