Production of palm oil-based diacylglycerol using Lecitase Ultra-catalyzed glycerolysis and molecular distillation

Abstract

Diacylglycerol (DAG) was prepared via glycerolysis of palm oil catalyzed by Lecitase Ultra (LU), a novel phospholipase from the fusion of lipase genes from Thermomyces lanuginose and phospholipase genes from Fusarium oxysporum. Glycerolysis was performed in a solvent-free system. The optimized reaction conditions were: a glycerol/palm oil mole ratio of 7.5:1, initial substrate water content of 5%, substrate enzyme load of 2%, reaction temperature of 40°C, and reaction time of 8 h. In a scale-up reaction, a DAG content of 59.5% in the lipid layer was achieved. Through a two-step molecular distillation, the composition of the target product was 88.1% DAG, 2.8% TAG, 9.0% MAG, and 0.1% FFA. The fatty acid composition of the DAG oil, determined using GC-MS, was enriched compared with the original palm oil.