Increase of Oleic Acid Content in Phosphatidylcholine through Lipase-catalyzed Interesterification: Optimization by Response Surface Methodology.

In order to obtain phosphatidylcholine (PC) with higher amount of oleic acid, the interesterification between soybean PC and Camellia oleifera oil (COO) rich in oleic acid catalyzed by lipase was studied in hexane. For this aim three commercially available immobilized lipases (Novozym 435, Lipozyme TLIM and Lipozyme RMIM) were assayed and Novozym 435 was finally selected for further optimization. The effects of the factors, such as PC concentration, substrate ratio, water amount, lipase dosage and temperature, on the oleic acid content in PC and PC recovery during the interesterification were investigated. The conditions of the interesterification were optimized using response surface methodology. The optimum conditions were as follows: lipase dosage 13 % (based on the mass of PC and COO), reaction temperature 55°C, water amount 5% (based on the mass of PC), reaction time 8 h, PC concentration 0.3g/mL (PC/hexane), PC-to-COO ratio 1:3 (acyl groups in PC/acyl groups in COO, mol/mol). Under these conditions, oleic acid content and PC recovery were 40.8 ± 0.5% and 69.0 ± 2.8%, respectively. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the regression models were adequate for predicting the interesterifiction. The orders of reaction variables affecting on oleic acid content and PC recovery were water amount > reaction time > lipase dosage > reaction temperature, and water amount > reaction temperature > lipase dosage > reaction time, respectively.