Green synthesis of isopropyl myristate in novel single phase medium Part I: Batch optimization studies

Isopropyl myristate finds many applications in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries as an emollient, thickening agent, or lubricant. Using a homogeneous reaction phase, non-specific lipase derived from Candida antartica, marketed as Novozym 435, was determined to be most suitable for the enz...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biotechnology Reports
Main Authors: Rajeshkumar N. Vadgama, Annamma A. Odaneth, Arvind M. Lali
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.btre.2015.10.006
https://doaj.org/article/0eddb5e3e6bd41ca9705000349b96752
Description
Summary:Isopropyl myristate finds many applications in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries as an emollient, thickening agent, or lubricant. Using a homogeneous reaction phase, non-specific lipase derived from Candida antartica, marketed as Novozym 435, was determined to be most suitable for the enzymatic synthesis of isopropyl myristate. The high molar ratio of alcohol to acid creates novel single phase medium which overcomes mass transfer effects and facilitates downstream processing. The effect of various reaction parameters was optimized to obtain a high yield of isopropyl myristate. Effect of temperature, agitation speed, organic solvent, biocatalyst loading and batch operational stability of the enzyme was systematically studied. The conversion of 87.65% was obtained when the molar ratio of isopropyl alcohol to myristic acid (15:1) was used with 4% (w/w) catalyst loading and agitation speed of 150 rpm at 60 °C. The enzyme has also shown good batch operational stability under optimized conditions.