An endophytic strain creened from fresh cinnamon branch that can biotransform cinnamyl alcohol to synthesize natural 2-phenylethanol was identified as Sphingomonas and named Sphingomonas sp. Z45. The metabolic intermediates were traced by GC-MS, and the possible metabolic pathway was deduced as follows: cinnamyl alcohol was oxidized first, and then decarboxylated to phenylacetaldehyde, and the product 2-phenylethyl alcohol was obtained by hydrogenation reduction of phenylacetaldehyde. The effects of single factor experiment on the biotransformation system were investigated. The optimal reaction conditions were obtained as follows: initial pH = 7, 5% inoculum concentration, 20 mL medium in 150 mL flask, after 24 hours of cell culture, the substrate cinnamyl alcohol (2.5 g/L) was added, conversion temperature of 30 ℃, shaker speed 200 r/min, conversion time of 12 h. Under the optimal conditions, the conversion of cinnamon alcohol was 59.16% and the concentration of 2-phenylethanol was 1.48 g/L.