Media Engineering in Lipase-mediated Synthesis of Glucose Esters

Sugar esters are amphiphilic surfactants that can reduce the surface tension of water when used in specified concentration. Thus garnered wide applications in cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Surfactants are also used in biological research, where octyl glucopyronoside and other similar surfactants are utilized as detergents to solubilize membrane protein for studying biological functions and DNA extractions. Although surfactants such as those of sugar esters were known to be chemically synthesized, the process is not environmental friendly and most of the time the produced ester is contaminated with toxic catalyst. An alternative environmental friendly process for surfactants production is the enzyme-mediated catalysis. Unfortunately, selective media composition is one of the setbacks in such biocatalysis. In this book, the thermodynamic effects of solvent polarity on the biocatalytic esterification of surfactant were discussed.