Lipase-Catalyzed Solid Phase Synthesis of Sugar Esters

Lipase-catalyzed synthesis of sugar fatty acid esters was performed in a heterogeneous reaction system in the presence of an organic solvent serving as adjuvant. Although the sugar is almost insoluble in such a system, high conversions to the corresponding sugar esters were achieved, due to crystallization of the product. Acylation occurred regioselectively at the primary hydroxyl group and subsequent diacylation was observed only in the case of caprylic acid (2–5%). Best conditions were found for solvents having low log P values and low product solubility such as acetone, using immobilized lipase from Candida antarctica (CAL-B, Novo SP435) and fatty acids with chain lengths from C₁₂ to C₈ as acyl donors. The esterification of β-D(+)-glucose with stearic acid resulted in up to 100% conversion after 48 hours equal to a productivity of 0.4 mmol sugar ester per gram lipase and hour.