Preparação de biocatalisadores utilizando lipase de Candida antarctica tipo B imobilizada para síntese de ésteres de vitamina A

Abstract

The objective of this work was to study the preparation of biocatalysts using lipase of Candida antarctica type B (CALB) covalently immobilized in agarose, chitosan, an abundant and low cost raw material, to be used in the synthesis of ester of Vitamin A. Several strategies of immobilization were studied in order to obtain a biocatalyst with good enzymatic activity and high thermal and operational stabilities. Three types of supports (agarose, chitosan and chitosanalginate) were activated by different strategies, but most of attention was given to the supports chitosan and chitosan-alginate. Only one derivative was prepared by immobilizing CALB in agarose and results of synthesis were compared to commercial derivatives (immobilized lipase of Thermomyces lanuginosus - Lipozyme TL IM - and immobilized lipase of Mucor miehei - Lipozyme RM IM), for the definition of some operational conditions. The operational condition that presented good results in the synthesis was used in further studies, such as removal of water from the reacional media by molecular sieves. After immobilization and thermal stabilities at 60 ºC tests, two derivatives (J8: chitosan actived with glicidol follow by EDA and glutaraldehyde; G10: chitosan-alginate actived with glutaraldehyde) were selected: the ones that presented higher specific activities (422.44 ± 50.4 U/g and 378.30 ± 34.7 U/g, respectively) and best thermal stabilities (factors of stabilization of 10.25 and 29.0, respectively). Operational hydrolytic stabilities and the performance of these biocatalysts on the synthesis of retinyl palmitate were evaluated. One factorial design 22 was carried out to evaluate the synthesis of retinyl palmitate. The influence of the temperature (37 ºC and 45 ºC) and ratio between substrates concentration, retinol: palmitic acid (1:3 and 1:5), in the yield of synthesis, catalyzed for the J8 derivative, were evaluated. A statistical analysis of the results showed that the the most significant effect was the rate of substrates concentration. Higher yields of synthesis were obtained when the ratio of substrates concentration was equal to 1:5. Results of reaction yields at 37ºC and 45 ºC were very similar. Therefore, 37 ºC was selected for further studies. Best results for thermal stability at 60ºC were obtained for G10, CALB immobilized in chitosan-alginate, being approximately 29-fold more stable than soluble enzyme, and 2-fold more stable than the commercial enzyme (Novozyme 435). On the other hand, J8, CALB immobilized in chitosan, presented higher operational hydrolysis stability, with a similar deactivation profile to Novozyme 435.