Abstract
Honey and agave syrup are high quality natural products and consist of more than 80% sugars. They are used as sweeteners, and are ingredients of cosmetics or medical ointments. Furthermore, both have low water content, are often liquid at room temperature and resemble some known sugar-based deep eutectic solvents (DES). Since it has been shown that it is possible to synthesize sugar esters in these DESs, in the current work honey or, as vegan alternative, agave syrup are used simultaneously as solvent and substrate for the enzymatic sugar ester production. For this purpose, important characteristics of the herein used honey and agave syrup were determined and compared with other available types. Subsequently, an enzymatic transesterification of four fatty acid vinyl esters was accomplished in ordinary honey and agave syrup. Notwithstanding of the high water content for transesterification reactions of the solvent, the successful sugar ester formation was proved by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and compared to a sugar ester which was synthesized in a conventional DES. For a clear verification of the sugar esters, mass determinations by ESI-Q-ToF experiments and a NMR analysis were done. These environmentally friendly produced sugar esters have the potential to be used in cosmetics or pharmaceuticals, or to enhance their effectiveness.
Highlights
Many innovations are being developed today by improving and combining existing products or processes or by the usage of alternative substrates
Enzymatic Synthesis of Glycolipids The enzymatic synthesis of glycolipids is based on Siebenhaller et al with slight modifications as follows: 20 mg of immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B (iCalB), 200 μl of a fatty acid vinyl ester and 2.5 ml of honey or agave syrup were filled in a 5 ml Eppendorf Tube (Siebenhaller et al, 2016)
For characterizing the used sugar-containing natural products— honey and agave syrup—the contents of the two major carbohydrates fructose and glucose were determined by HPLC
Summary
Many innovations are being developed today by improving and combining existing products or processes or by the usage of alternative substrates. Glycolipids, which are sugar fatty acid esters, had been produced chemically for decades. Nowadays, they are often produced more sustainably by fermentation or synthesized by enzymes from renewable resources (Ducret et al, 1996). Glycolipids are used in toothpaste, lotions, shampoos, and lipsticks (Šabeder et al, 2006), but they have the potential to be used in even more products. An example for their bioactivity is the use of sugar
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