Enzymatic synthesis of feruloylated lysophospholipid in a selected organic solvent medium

Feruloylated lysophospholipids (FLPs) were firstly synthesized from phosphatidylcholine (PC) and ethyl ferulate (EF) using lipase-catalysed interesterification in selected solvents at controlled water content. Kinds of lipases and single solvents were screened. Novozym 435 and toluene were found to be the suitable biocatalyst and solvent, respectively. Then tert-butanol, n-butanol, chloroform, isopropanol, acetone and DMSO were respectively added into toluene in order to increase conversion of products. The results showed that toluene/chloroform could significantly increase the conversion and the optimal combination of toluene and chloroform was 90:10 (v/v). The optimal conditions generated for FLPs production were a substrate molar ratio of 5:1 (PC/EF), a PC’s hydrolytic time of 1.5 h, an enzyme load of 60 mg/ml, a solvent dosage of 5 ml and a molecular sieves concentration (4 Å) of 100 mg/ml. Under these conditions, 40.51% of EF can be converted to FLPs, which were identified by TLC and HPLC–MS.