Effect of Processing Conditions on Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Sunflower Lecithins

D.M. CABEZAS; MADOERY R. ; DIEHL B. ; TOMÁS, M.C.

Phoenix

Congreso; 101th AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo; 2010

American Oil Chemists´ Society (AOCS)

Lecithin is a multifunctional ingredient used in a wide range of industrial applications (nutritional, pharmaceutical, cosmetics). Enzymatic hydrolysis can originate lysolecithins which are applied to different food purposes (emulsions, bakery products) due to the interesting functional properties of lysophospholipids (LPL).             The aim of this work was to evaluate the enzymatic hydrolysis of sunflower lecithins studying the influence of different processing conditions on the efficiency of the process . at a lab scale. Enzymatic hydrolysis of sunflower lecithin was carried out in a lab reactor with a phospholipase A2 (LysoMax, Danisco) ( 0.4-2.0 ml /100 g lecithin,  pH 7-9, 50 ºC, t (0.6-5 h) under continuous agitation. Reaction products were deoiled and dried under vacuum. Phospholipid (PL) composition of the different samples was determined by 31PNMR and the efficiency of the process followed by TPL and LPL/TPL % ratio. The results showed that the modification process allowed to obtain sunflower lysolecithins with LPL content between 2.6 – 23.8 (starting sunflower lecithin 1%) and a wide range 4.6 – 57.5% in LPL/PL % ratio. Significant parameters from ANOVA were lipase concentration and lipase*pH interaction for both TPL and LPL/TPL % and lipase*time, time*pH  (R2  0.93 and 0.99, respectively). Sunflower lysolecithins constitute a potential and interesting alternative as bioemulsifiers to be applied at the food industry.