Specialty Fats Enriched with Behenic and Medium Chain Fatty Acids from Palm Stearin by Lipase Acidolysis

A comprehensive review of lipase-catalyzed acidolysis as a method for producing structured glycerides

The production of structured lipids is a current trend in food technology in order to enhance the properties of fats and oils. Lipases have been utilized in many instances for this purpose, in most examples in an immobilized form. In this review, after discussing the different strategies to produce artificial lipids using lipases (esterification, transesterification, interesterification), we have focused on acidolysis. The reaction commences with hydrolysis at one position of the triglyceride molecule and is followed by the esterification between the released hydroxyl group and the target fatty acid (although other carboxylic acids can be used, such as phenolic acid derivatives). This means that water plays a double role, as substrate in the first step and as an undesired by-product in the second one. Therefore, the control of water activity becomes critical in these reactions. This review discusses the advantages, possibilities and drawbacks of this strategy to produce tailor-made designed lipids, summarizing many of the papers related to this strategy. The summarized results show the complexity of this reaction that can make the understanding and reproducibility of the reactions complex if there are no strict controls of all parameters determining the final yields.

Propylsulfonic and arenesulfonic functionalized SBA-15 silica as an efficient and reusable catalyst for the acidolysis of soybean oil with medium-chain fatty acids

The objective of this work was to develop a feasible ecofriendly process to produce medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA)-enriched structured lipids (SLs) in heterogeneous manners. For this purpose, the propyl-SO3H or arene-SO3H-modified SBA-15 materials were prepared through a surface functionalization of SBA-15 silica with propyl-SO3H and arene-SO3H groups. The organosulfonic acid-functionalized SBA-15 materials were characterized by Brönsted acidity determination, elemental analysis, XRD, C(13) MAS NMR, FT-IR, SEM, TG, TEM, and N2 adsorption-desorption techniques. Results showed that the propyl-SO3H and arene-SO3H groups were successfully tethered on the SBA-15 support, and the ordered mesoporous structure of SBA-15 silica was well retained after the organofunctionalization. This organic-inorganic hybrid material displayed high surface acidities and high activities in the acidolysis of soybean oil with caprylic or capric acid to produce SLs containing MCFAs. The influences of processing parameters on the reaction were investigated. The two studied catalysts showed an excellent recyclability for the reaction.

Recent Research Trends on the Enzymatic Synthesis of Structured Lipids

Structured lipids (SLs) are lipids that have been chemically or enzymatically modified from their natural biosynthetic form. Because SLs are made to possess desired nutritional, physicochemical, or textural properties for various applications in the food industry, many research activities have been aimed at their commercialization. The production of SLs by enzymatic procedures has a great potential in the future market because of the specificity of lipases and phospholipases used as the biocatalysts. The aim of this review is to provide concise information on the recent research trends on the enzymatic synthesis of SLs of commercial interest, such as medium- and long-chain triacylglycerols, human milk fat substitutes, cocoa butter equivalents, trans-free or low-trans plastic fats (such as margarines and shortenings), low-calorie fats/oils, health-beneficial fatty acid-rich fats/oils, mono- or diacylglycerols, and structurally modified phospholipids. This limited review covers 108 research articles published between 2010 and 2014 which were searched in Web of Science.