Comparative Analysis of Bio- and Chemo-Catalysts for the Synthesis of Flavour Compound Hexanal from Linoleic Acid

oleh: Jan Drönner, Valentin Gala Marti, Simone Bandte, Anna Coenen, Ulrich Schörken, Matthias Eisenacher

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-09-01

Deskripsi

Hexanal, hexenal, nonenal and their corresponding alcohols are used as green notes in the fragrance and flavour industry. The production of bio-based hexanal starts from linoleic acid, which can be obtained from sunflower or safflower oil. The biocatalytic process utilizes C<sub>13</sub>-specific lipoxygenase (LOX) for hydroperoxidation and consecutive splitting with hydroperoxide lyase (HPL). In this study, we investigated the chemical splitting of the LOX product 13-HPODE in comparison to HPL catalysis. In addition, 13-HPODE was synthesized using enriched linoleic acid from safflower oil. Varying amounts of soybean flour suspension as a source of LOX yielded up to 60% HPODE with a regioselectivity of 92% towards 13-HPODE. Using low-toxicity Lewis acids like AlCl<sub>3</sub> and ZrCl<sub>4</sub>, cleavage of the produced 13-HPODE was possible. A maximum hexanal yield of 22.9% was reached with AlCl<sub>3</sub> under mild reaction conditions, though product degradation was an interfering process. Comparative trials with N-terminal truncated HPL from papaya revealed hexanal recovery within a comparable range. Additionally, we successfully demonstrated the viability of Hock rearrangement of 13-HPODE through heterogeneous catalysts. Notably, Beta zeolite and Montmorillonite K10 exhibited a turnover frequency (TOF) on par with common heterogeneous catalysts employed in industrial processes.