Synthesis of lactose monolaurate as influenced by various lipases and solvents

Fatty acid sugar esters are non-ionic detergents with multiple uses in the cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Of the many different sugar esters synthesized, lactose, a by-product of cheese manufacture, has not been investigated. The objective of this research was to investigate the synthesis of novel lactose monolaurate (LML) and sucrose monolaurate (as a comparison) (SML) using four different immobilized lipases in three different solvents at constant sugar, vinyl laurate, temperature, and enzyme concentrations. Overall, the solvent 2-methyl-2-butanol gave the highest yields and reactions rates for the synthesis of both LML and SML. Of the immobilized lipases, those from Pseudomonas cepacia, Mucor miehei and Thermomyces lanuginosus were effective depending on the sugar/solvent combination. Higher overall yields were obtained for the synthesis of LML with the differences in yields presumably due to the decreased solubility of sucrose as compared to lactose in 3 of the solvents used. Response surface methodology was used to determine the optimal temperature, enzyme concentration and ratio of reactants for LML synthesis using the immobilized lipase from M. miehei in 2-methyl-2-butanol. Based on the analysis of ridge max, the optimal synthesis conditions were predicted to occur at 61 °C, with an enzyme amount of 32 mg/mL, and a molar ratio of lactose to vinyl laurate of 1:3.8; and the optimal actual yield was 99.3%.