Evaluation of the Candida sp. 99-125 Lipase Positional Selectivity for 1,3-Diolein Synthesis

Abstract

In this study, comparative experiments were carried out to investigate the positional selectivity of Candida sp. 99–125 lipase in preparing 1,3-diolein by using medium engineering strategy. The results indicated that the diolein yield was markedly enhanced from 56.5% to 86.7% with increasing log⁡P values of the solvents, while the selectivity of the examined lipase for the sn-1 over the sn-2 hydroxyl of glycerol was decreased, thus leading to a reduced 1,3-diolein to 1,2-diolein ratio. To evaluate the possibility of industrial enzymatic production of 1,3-diolein, larger-scale experiments were assessed. After being used repeatedly for eight batches, the diolein content reached 95.1%, while the 1,3-diolein to 1,2-diolein ratio was 7:1 following purification. Results of the kg level experiments significantly demonstrated the practicability of the enzymatic process and the efficiency of the purification strategy for the product.