Abstract
Phospholipids (PL) rich in conjugated linolenic acid (CLA) have important health effects. Yields of phosphatidylcholine (PC) acidolysis with CLA use to be limited to <30%, due to competitive side-hydrolysis. Duolite A658-Lecitase is a very suitable biocatalyst for this reaction. In this study, PC hydrolysis has been practically eliminated using extremely dried lyophilized PC (279 ± 4 mg water/Kg PC), obtaining close to 100% molar yield of modified PC (72.3% CLA) with Duolite-Lecitase in 24 h, the highest yield reported in the literature for this reaction. It has been better improved by changing the immobilization support, using three food grade hydrophobic supports (Styrene, and two Octadecyl methacrylates (OM and OMC)). In only 2 h, with a 1/12 PC/CLA molar ratio at 50 °C, similar almost quantitative yields of PC with 74.4% CLA content has been obtained using OM-Lecitase. The fatty acid composition of modified PCs is not affected by the enzyme immobilization protocol.