Studies on the specificity of Candida rugosa lipase catalyzed esterification reactions in organic media

In this study, the feasibility of the synthesis of various flavor esters catalyzed by a commercial lipase from Candida rugosa was investigated and the process parameters were optimized. Lipase from C. rugosa successfully catalyzed the synthesis of 19 esters. The highest yields, of more than 90 % after 20 h, were observed in the synthesis of short-chain esters, pentyl propanoate, isopentyl butanoate, and butyl butanoate. Increasing the number of carbon atoms of both substrates above 8 caused a significant decrease of the initial reaction rates and the final yields. The enzyme showed surprisingly low affinity towards pentanoic acid and hexanoic acid, compared with the higher homologues, octanoic acid and decanoic acid. In addition to the number of carbon atoms, the structure of the substrates had a significant influence on the enzyme activity. Namely, the activity of the enzyme towards isopropanol was significantly lower compared with n-propanol. Additionally, cis-9-octadecenoic acid was a better substrate than octadecanoic acid, its saturated analogue.