Sucrose lipase-catalyzed acylation

A possible solution to this problem of low rates is to use ionic liquids as solvents. Certain ionic liquids, e.g. those containing the dicyanamide anion, (NC)2N, have been shown to dissolve sucrose in concentrations of several hundred grams per litre [210]. The lipase-catalyzed acylation of glucose with fatty acid esters has been shown to occur in a mixture of an ionic liquid, [bmim][BF4], and tert-butanol [211]. 

Once bearing some substituents, the decrease of polarity of the sucrose derivatives makes them soluble in less-polar solvents, such as acetone or tert-butanol, in which some lipases are able to catalyze esterifications. Unlike proteases, which necessitate most often the use of an activated acyl donor (such as vinyl or trifluoroethyl esters), lipases are active with simple esters and even the parent carboxylic acids in the presence of a water scavenger. The selectivity of the lipase-catalyzed second esterification is specific for OH-6 allowing the synthesis of mixed T,6 -diesters.123,124 For some lipases, a chain-length dependence on the regiochemistry was observed.125 Selectively substituted monoesters were thus prepared and studied for their solution and thermotropic behavior.126,127 Combinations of enzyme-mediated and purely chemical esterifications led to a series of specifically substituted sucrose fatty acid diesters with variations in the chain length, the level of saturation, and the position on the sugar backbone. This allowed the impact of structural variations on thermotropic properties to be demonstrated (compare Section III.l).128... 

M. Ferrer, M. A. Cruces, M. Bernabe, A. Ballesteros, and F. J. Plou., Lipase-catalyzed regioselective acylation of sucrose in two-solvent mixtures, Biotechnol. Bioeng., 65 (1999) 10-16. 

The rather complex furylvinylcarbinol derivative 76 shown in Scheme 4.28 was required in enantiopure form as a key intermediate in the synthesis of the natural product cneorin. The carbinol moiety is heavily substituted with sterically demanding groups. Therefore attempts to resolve the furylvinylcarbinol with CALB or lipase PS-II led to very slow reactions. However, the rarely used enzyme Candida antarctica lipase A (CALA), which is known to act on sterically hindered substrates offers an alternative. Thus acylation of the furylvinylcarbinol 76 with 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl butanoate catalyzed by CALA (immobilized on celite with sucrose at pH 7.9) furnished the enantiomerically enriched propanoate of S-76 and R-76 (Scheme 4.28) [90]. Small-scale experiments gave E > 300. 

The major problem associated with the enzymatic acylation of sucrose is the incompatibility of the two reactants sucrose and a fatty acid ester. Sucrose is hydrophilic and readily soluble in water or polar aprotic solvents such as pyridine and dimethylformamide. The former is not a feasible solvent for (trans)esterifi-cations, for obvious thermodynamic reasons, and the latter are not suitable for the manufacture of food-grade products. The selective acylation of sucrose, as a suspension in refluxing tert-butanol, catalyzed by C. antarctica lipase B, afforded a 1 1 mixture of the 6 and 6 sucrose monoesters (Fig. 8.39) [208]. Unfortunately, the rate was too low (35% conversion in 7 days) to be commercially useful. 

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