Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Chemical Characterization of Sunflower Lecithins

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

Orlando, USA

Congreso; 100th AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo; 2009

American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS)

 Lecithins are used in a wide range of industrial applications (nutritional, pharmaceutical, cosmetics). Modification process such as hydrolysis can originate lysoderivates applied to different food purposes (emulsions, bakery products) due to the interesting functional properties of lysophospholipids (LPL).             The aim of this work was to study the enzymatic hydrolysis of sunflower lecithins investigating the effect of different operative conditions on the   phospholipid composition of modified lecithins at lab scale. The enzymatic hydrolysis of sunflower lecithin was carried out in a lab reactor with a phospholipase A2 (Lecitase 10 L), CaCl2 (0.1-0.4 M) (cofactor), initial pH values 7-9, 60 ºC, t (0.6-5 h) under continuous agitation. Furthermore, the reaction products were deoiled with acetone and dried under vacuum. The phospholipid (PL) composition of the different samples was determined by 31PNMR. The results showed that the application of this modification process allowed to obtain sunflower lysolecithins with a total LPL content ranged from 21 to 37% in comparison with the starting sunflower lecithin (1%). The highest concentration of LPL was recorded for CaCl2 0.1 M, pH 7 and both times of incubation. The conversion of the main original phospholipids was up to 85%, for all conditions assayed, in this order: PC > PI and PE. The sunflower lysolecithins constitute a potential and interesting alternative as bioemulsifiers to be applied at the food industry.