Combination of modern plant breeding and enzyme technology to obtain highly enriched erucic acid from Crambe oil

• Background Fatty acids from vegetable oils are useful building blocks for industrial materials. The purpose of this work was to prepare erucic acid with high purity from a vegetable oil. High purity erucic acid is used for the production of erucamide with applications in plastics manufacturing. A newly developed transgenic Crambe line produces seed oil with 68% erucic acid compared to 53% in the wild type oil. Results Further enrichment of erucic acid from Crambe (wild type and transgenic) oil was achieved by selective enzymatic hydrolysis. UsingCandida rugosalipase as catalyst, other fatty acids were preferentially hydrolysed from the triacylglycerols and erucic acid was enriched in the acylglycerol fraction. The highest content of erucic acid achieved in that fraction was 95%. Conclusions The combination of modern plant breeding and enzyme technology is a promising approach for preparation of fatty acids of high purity.

Subject headings

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Bioteknologi med applikationer på växter och djur -- Växtbioteknologi (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agricultural Biotechnology -- Plant Biotechnology (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Kemiteknik -- Kemiska processer (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Chemical Engineering -- Chemical Process Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Industriell bioteknik -- Biokemikalier (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Industrial Biotechnology -- Biochemicals (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)