The role of a variety of compounds including organic acids, vitamins, growth promoting substances, purines and pyrimidines in the bioconversion of cortisol with Bacillus cereus was investigated. The transformation of cortisol to prednisolone and pregn-4-en-11beta, 17alpha,20beta, 21-tetrol-3-one was affected by these compounds in different manners. The enzymatic delta1-dehydrogenation reaction was greatly induced with fumarate, menadione, and xanthine treatments. However, the enzymic reduction of the 20-carbonyl to the 20beta-ol was specifically stimulated with fumarate, nicotinic acid amide, and uracil treatments.