Development of an ethanolic two-phase system (ETPS) based on polypropylene glycol 2000 + ethylene glycol + ethanol for separation of hydrophobic compounds.

This work reports, for the first time, an Ethanolic Two-Phase System (ETPS) based on polypropylene glycol 2000 (PPG 2000), mono-, di-, tri-ethylene glycol, and ethanol. An ionic liquid (IL) (1-butyl-3-methylpyridinium chloride) was used as an adjuvant. This ETPS shows promising results for the extraction of highly hydrophobic compounds. Bixin (model of hydrophobic compounds) migrates completely to the PPG 2000-rich phase, while ascorbic acid (hydrophilic compound) migrated to the opposite phase.

Oleochemistry potential from Brazil northeastern exotic plants.

Caatinga is a Brazilian semi-arid ecosystem that stands out for presenting unique environmental characteristics with a dry, spiny and deciduous shrub/forest vegetation with several species that can be renewable oil sources with potential applicability in oleochemical and nutrition. Caatinga oilseeds have a high content of unsaturated fatty acids, phytosterols and sterols, and this composition is related to its nutritional potential. The present review summarizes the knowledge on the oil contents and fatty acid profiles of seeds from six representatives caatinga species. It was observed that plants species like Caju (Anacardium occidentale L.), Favela (Cnidoscolus quercifolius Pohl), Licuri (Syagrus coronata (Mart.) Becc.), Pinhão-bravo (Jatropha mollissima Pohl Baill), Pequi (Caryocar brasiliense Camb) and Oiticica (Licania rígida Benth) contains approximately 33.1, 33.5, 49.2, 18.3, 70.16 and 57.0% w/w of oil, respectively, on a dry weight basis. Their fatty acid profiles are mostly saturated for Licuri oil, with a high content of lauric acid (up to 40%) and unsaturated for Favela, Pinhão-bravo, Cashew nut, Pequi and Oiticica oils. Oiticica oil shows a high concentration of unusual conjugated polyunsaturated fatty acids, like α-Eleostearic and Licanic acid with 16.90 and 43.20% w/w, respectively.

Protic ionic liquid as additive on lipase immobilization using silica sol-gel.

Ionic liquids (ILs) have evolved as a new type of non-aqueous solvents for biocatalysis, mainly due to their unique and tunable physical properties. A number of recent review papers have described a variety of enzymatic reactions conducted in IL solutions, on the other hand, to improve the enzyme's activity and stability in ILs; major methods being explored include the enzyme immobilization (on solid support, sol-gel, etc.), protic ionic liquids used as an additive process. The immobilization of the lipase from Burkholderia cepacia by the sol-gel technique using protic ionic liquids (PIL) as additives to protect against inactivation of the lipase due to release of alcohol and shrinkage of the gel during the sol-gel process was investigated in this study. The influence of various factors such as the length of the alkyl chain of protic ionic liquids (monoethanolamine-based) and a concentration range between 0.5 and 3.0% (w/v) were evaluated. The resulting hydrophobic matrices and immobilized lipases were characterised with regard to specific surface area, adsorption-desorption isotherms, pore volume (V(p)) and size (d(p)) according to nitrogen adsorption and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), physico-chemical properties (thermogravimetric - TG, differential scanning calorimetry - DSC and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy - FTIR) and the potential for ethyl ester and emulsifier production. The total activity yields (Y(a)) for matrices of immobilized lipase employing protic ionic liquids as additives always resulted in higher values compared with the sample absent the protic ionic liquids, which represents 35-fold increase in recovery of enzymatic activity using the more hydrophobic protic ionic liquids. Compared with arrays of the immobilized biocatalyst without additive, in general, the immobilized biocatalyst in the presence of protic ionic liquids showed increased values of surface area (143-245 m(2) g(-1)) and pore size (19-38 Å). Immobilization with protic ionic liquids also favoured reduced mass loss according to TG curves (always less than 42.9%) when compared to the immobilized matrix without protic ionic liquids (45.1%), except for the sample containing 3.0% protic ionic liquids (46.5%), verified by thermogravimetric analysis. Ionic liquids containing a more hydrophobic alkyl group in the cationic moiety were beneficial for recovery of the activity of the immobilized lipase. The physico-chemical characterization confirmed the presence of the enzyme and its immobilized derivatives obtained in this study by identifying the presence of amino groups, and profiling enthalpy changes of mass loss.