Zarevúcka M., Wimmer Z.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
9:
2447-2473,
2008
Keywords:
Lipase; hydrolysis; esterification; plant oil; phytosterol; supercritical fluid; ionic liquid
Abstract:
Different plant products have been subjected to detailed investigations due to
their increasing importance for improving human health. Plants are sources of many
groups of natural products, of which large number of new compounds has already
displayed their high impact in human medicine. This review deals with the natural
products which may be found dissolved in lipid phase (phytosterols, vitamins etc.). Often
subsequent convenient transformation of natural products may further improve the
pharmacological properties of new potential medicaments based on natural products. To
respect basic principles of sustainable and green procedures, enzymes are often employed
as efficient natural catalysts in such plant product transformations. Transformations of
lipids and other natural products under the conditions of enzyme catalysis show
increasing importance in environmentally safe and sustainable production of
pharmacologically important compounds. In this review, attention is focused on lipases,
efficient and convenient biocatalysts for the enantio- and regioselective formation /
hydrolysis of ester bond in a wide variety of both natural and unnatural substrates,
including plant products, eg. plant oils and other natural lipid phase compounds. The
application of enzymes for preparation of acylglycerols and transformation of other
natural products provides big advantage in comparison with employing of conventional
chemical methods: Increased selectivity, higher product purity and quality, energy
conservation, elimination of heavy metal catalysts, and sustainability of the employed
processes, which are catalyzed by enzymes. Two general procedures are used in the
transformation of lipid-like natural products: (a) Hydrolysis/alcoholysis of
triacylglycerols and (b) esterification of glycerol. The reactions can be performed under
conventional conditions or in supercritical fluids/ionic liquids. Enzyme-catalyzed
reactions in supercritical fluids combine the advantages of biocatalysts (substrate
specificity under mild reaction conditions) and supercritical fluids (high mass-transfer
rate, easy separation of reaction products from the solvent, environmental benefits based
on excluding organic solvents from the production process).
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IEB authors: Zdeněk Wimmer
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