Revista de Bioprocessamento e Biotécnicas

Alternative Technology of Enzymatic Production of Eugenyl and Linalyl Acetate Esters

Abstract

Adriana BV, Bruna A, Glaucia F, Bruna MS Puton, Rogerio LC, Natalia P and Debora O Vanin

Flavors production by enzymatic esterification is an important scientific and technological issue due to the numerous inconveniences related to the acid catalysis, mainly due to not be a clean technology. In this sense, this work used an alternative technology that describes the maximization of the enzymatic production of eugenyl acetate and linalyl acetate esters via enzymatic esterification of eugenol, a major component of clove oil (Caryophyllus aromaticus), and tertiary alcohol linalool, by using acetic anhydride and immobilized enzyme Novozym 435 as the catalyst in an organic solvent-free system. The best reaction condition with 100% of eugenyl acetate conversion was obtained at 60°C with an excess of acetic anhydride (1:5 molar ratio) and 10% of enzyme concentration (w/w in relation to the substrates). Higher yields of linalyl acetate (5.6%) were achieved with the enzyme concentration of 5%, at 70°C and molar ratio acid to alcohol of 9:1, with 6 hours of reaction time for the both esters production. The data analysis showed a positive effect of molar ratio associated with the temperature to the eugenyl acetate conversion, and the effect of the temperature to the linalyl acetate conversion. The tertiary alcohol characteristic in esterification it was also discussed.