School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637459, Singapore.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Mar 21;23(6):3381. doi: 10.3390/ijms23063381.
Greater awareness of environmental sustainability has driven many industries to transition from using synthetic organic solvents to greener solvents in their manufacturing. Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have emerged as a highly promising category of green solvents with well-demonstrated and wide-ranging applications, including their use as a solvent in extraction of small-molecule bioactive compounds for food and pharmaceutical applications. The use of DES as an extraction solvent of biological macromolecules, on the other hand, has not been as extensively studied. Thereby, the feasibility of employing DES for biomacromolecule extraction has not been well elucidated. To bridge this gap, this review provides an overview of DES with an emphasis on its unique physicochemical properties that make it an attractive green solvent (e.g., non-toxicity, biodegradability, ease of preparation, renewable, tailorable properties). Recent advances in DES extraction of three classes of biomacromolecules-i.e., proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids-were discussed and future research needs were identified. The importance of DES's properties-particularly its viscosity, polarity, molar ratio of DES components, and water addition-on the DES extraction's performance were discussed. Not unlike the findings from DES extraction of bioactive small molecules, DES extraction of biomacromolecules was concluded to be generally superior to extraction using synthetic organic solvents.
人们对环境可持续性的认识不断提高，促使许多行业在生产过程中从使用合成有机溶剂转向使用更环保的溶剂。深共晶溶剂 (DESs) 作为一类极具前景的绿色溶剂，已经得到了广泛的应用，包括在食品和制药应用中小分子生物活性化合物的提取中作为溶剂。另一方面，DES 作为生物大分子提取溶剂的应用尚未得到广泛研究。因此，DES 提取生物大分子的可行性尚未得到充分阐明。为了弥补这一空白，本综述重点介绍了 DES 的独特物理化学性质，这些性质使其成为一种有吸引力的绿色溶剂（例如，毒性低、可生物降解、易于制备、可再生、可定制）。讨论了 DES 提取三类生物大分子——蛋白质、碳水化合物和脂类——的最新进展，并确定了未来的研究需求。讨论了 DES 的性质（特别是其粘度、极性、DES 成分的摩尔比和加水）对 DES 提取性能的影响。与从生物活性小分子的 DES 提取结果类似，DES 提取生物大分子的效果通常优于使用合成有机溶剂的提取效果。
