Abstract
Lipase catalyzed hydrolysis reaction of fatty acid bonding with triglyceride docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was attained with the aid of soybean lecithin based W/O microemulsion. This reaction was fruitful as a pretreatment of enrichment of DHA in triglyceride from marine bioresources. Ester-bonded DHA was hardly hydrolyzed by Candida rugosa lipases due to their steric hindrance. On the other hands, mono unsaturated fatty acid in triglyceride was easily hydrolyzed by lipase specificity. Phosphate buffer (6.0≤pH≤7.5) was used as an aqueous phase and 2, 2, 4-trimethylpentane was employed as an organic solvent. Molar ratio of water to lecithin presented by W0 was used as a measure of water content. Initial reaction rate was strongly depended on the W0 value and appeared a maximum at ca. W0=10. The optimal lecithin concentration was found to be 12 mM, which was almost same as the critical micelle concentration. Soybean lecithin was superior to AOT to obtain higher initial reaction rate due to moderate electrostatic interaction. Temperature dependency obviously appeared under the suitable water content and the lecithin concentration.
