Production of a bioactive lipid-based delivery system from ratfish liver oil by enzymatic glycerolysis

This work shows, for the first time, the enzymatic glycerolysis of ratfish liver oil (RLO) as a method to obtain bioactive lipid carriers with potential self-emulsifying properties. Reaction conditions, leading to a 34% (w/w) of monoacylglycerol, were attained using 67% (w/w) of cyclopentanone as solvent, 40 °C, a molar ratio RLO to glycerol of 1:1 in the presence of Novozyme 435. Then, the glycerolysis process was scaled-up at pilot plant, with similar results to those obtained at laboratory scale. Finally, the effect of the enzymatic glycerolysis on the oxidative quality of ratfish liver oil was also evaluated determining peroxide, p-anisidine and TOTOX values along the different stages of the bioprocess. Results showed no deleterious effect of the glycerolysis process on the oil oxidative quality. Therefore, in the present work, an efficient, cost-effective, environmental friendly and easily scalable process of enzymatic glycerolysis has been developed to design a bioactive lipid-based delivery system from ratfish liver oil with potential application in the formulation of highly bioavailable and bioefficient nutritional supplements and functional foods.

This study has been funded by Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (ALIBIRD, project number S2013/ABI-2728) and by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (project number AGL2013-48943-C2-1-R). Pablo Arranz-Martínez and Marta Corzo-Martínez also thank Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and the European Social Fund: BES-2014-070395 for a pre-doctoral FPU grant and a Juan de la Cierva contract, respectively.

Peer Reviewed