A process for the synthesis of PUFA-enriched triglycerides from high-acid crude fish oil

This paper reports a research interest, that aims to establish a feasible industrial process, for the enzymatic production of glycerides with highly concentrated n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid), from high-acid crude fish oils. The process covers enzymatic deacidification of crude fish oil, alkaline-based synthesis of polyunsaturated fatty acids ethyl esters, concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids ethyl esters, and enzyme catalyzed synthesis of polyunsaturated fatty acids glycerides. Commercial available immobilized lipase, Novozym 435, was used as the catalyst. The synthesized glycerides contained 5.5% of eicosapentaenoic acid and 74.6% of docosahexaenoic acid, which was 1.21 and 2.71 times more than that in the original fish oil, respectively. The application of the designed process was successfully proved by a 100-fold scale-up reaction.