Method for preparing free astaxanthin by using microchannel reactor for enzymolysis
(I) technical field
The invention belongs to the technical field of biochemical engineering, and particularly relates to a method for producing free astaxanthin by hydrolyzing astaxanthin ester with lipase in a microchannel reactor.
(II) background of the invention
Astaxanthin (astaxanthin, CAS number 472-61-7), also known as astaxanthin, astaxanthin and lobster shell pigment, of chemical formula 3,3' -dihydroxy- β ' -carotene-4, 4' -dione, is a terpene-based unsaturated compound, which is one of carotenoids, has powerful biological functions, including anti-vascular cell damage, protection of cells from oxidative stress damage, memory improvement, anti-oxidation, anti-aging and optic nerve protection, and immune system function enhancement.
Astaxanthin is widely distributed in nature and is mainly derived from algae, bacteria, phytoplankton, and crustaceans including some aquatic species, including shrimps and crabs. Research shows that a large variety of algae, such as haematococcus pluvialis, snow algae, chlamydomonas, euglena, umbrella algae and the like, contain astaxanthin, wherein haematococcus pluvialis accumulates astaxanthin in an amount up to 4% of the dry cell weight, has a higher accumulation rate and a higher total production amount than other green algae, and is the best biological source for producing natural astaxanthin, such as astaxanthin oil sold in the market at present, namely haematococcus pluvialisAlgae powder through CO2Supercritical extracting, and blending with edible safflower seed oil, wherein the astaxanthin ester content is about 5%, but the content of free astaxanthin is lower.
Astaxanthin is active in nature and is present in esterified form in many cases. It has been found that astaxanthin esters have a low biological activity and a poor absorption and utilization in vivo relative to free astaxanthin. Therefore, how to efficiently convert astaxanthin ester into free astaxanthin so as to improve the bioavailability thereof has become a research hotspot.
At present, the methods for preparing free astaxanthin from astaxanthin ester mainly comprise chemical methods and biological enzyme methods. The chemical method is to convert astaxanthin ester into free astaxanthin under strong alkaline conditions, but the method is easy to oxidize astaxanthin into astaxanthin red to cause large loss of astaxanthin, and has the defects of destroying astaxanthin structure, more byproducts and the like. Chemically produced astaxanthin has been specifically banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from entering the health care market. The biological enzyme method is to convert astaxanthin ester into free astaxanthin by utilizing the high-efficiency specificity of enzyme. The method has the advantages of green and mild reaction conditions, small chemical reagent consumption, simple and convenient operation, high conversion efficiency, wide development prospect and gradual change to the mainstream preparation method of the free astaxanthin.
At present, a few reports of preparing free astaxanthin by hydrolyzing astaxanthin ester by using lipase are available, tween80 is often used as an emulsifier in the hydrolysis reaction, and astaxanthin oil and lipase liquid form an emulsion to increase the reaction interface, but the emulsion is very unstable, the formation of the emulsion depends on the rotation speed of oscillation or stirring, and the method has great limitation for large-scale production of astaxanthin; secondly, the use of emulsifiers also causes difficulties in the isolation and purification of astaxanthin.
A microreactor (microchannel reactor), also known as a microchannel reactor, is essentially a continuous flow channel reactor. The size order of the micro-channel scale in the reactor is generally micron or even nanometer, compared with a shake flask or other reactors, the mass transfer, heat transfer and reaction processes among fluids become efficient and easy to control under the micro-scale of the fluids, and the controllability of the reaction is greatly improved. With this advantage, microfluidic technology has gradually been applied in biocatalysis. Compared with the traditional reactor, the microchannel reactor has the characteristics of high reaction rate, high conversion rate, less reagent loss and the like.
In order to overcome the defects of the prior art, the invention applies the microchannel reaction technology to the preparation of free astaxanthin by enzymolysis of astaxanthin ester, avoids the difficulty of product separation and purification caused by the use of an emulsifier in the conventional method, and can obtain higher yield.
Disclosure of the invention
In order to solve the problems in the prior art, the invention aims to provide a novel method for preparing free astaxanthin by catalyzing astaxanthin ester with lipase in a microchannel reactor.
In order to achieve the purpose, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:
the invention provides a method for preparing free astaxanthin by using a microchannel reactor through enzymolysis, which comprises the following steps: taking a stainless steel pipe with the inner diameter of 0.7-1.0 mm and the length of 5-10 m as a microchannel reactor, wherein one end of the microchannel reactor is set as an inlet, the other end is set as an outlet, the inlet and the outlet are respectively connected with a section of silica gel hose, and the inner diameter of the silica gel hose is equal to or larger than that of the microchannel; taking astaxanthin oil as an oil phase, taking a lipase aqueous solution as a water phase, and placing the oil phase and the water phase in a raw material bottle (namely a lightproof brown container), wherein the oil phase is positioned at the upper layer, and the water phase is positioned at the lower layer; placing the microchannel reactor in a water bath kettle, respectively connecting the oil phase and the water phase with the inlet of the microchannel reactor in a T-shaped manner through a constant flow pump, and communicating the outlet of the microchannel reactor with the upper end of a raw material bottle (namely, the outlet is positioned at the upper layer of the oil phase in the raw material bottle); and (3) carrying out enzymolysis reaction on the oil phase and the water phase at the speed of 20-150 mu L/min, at the temperature of 30-40 ℃ and under the condition that the oil phase is retained in the microchannel for 60-200 min, and allowing the enzymolysis liquid after the reaction to enter the upper end of a raw material bottle through an outlet of a microchannel reactor to obtain the astaxanthin oil containing free astaxanthin.
Further, the water phase is prepared by using the lipase powder and phosphate buffer solution with pH of 6.0-8.0 and 20mmol/L to prepare lipase aqueous solution with the enzyme activity of 2000-5000U/mL, and more preferably 2000-4000U/mL.
Further, the volume ratio of the oil phase to the water phase added into the raw material bottle is 1:1, wherein the density of the oil phase is 0.9 g/mL; the volume of the water phase in the raw material bottle is 1.1mL/g by the mass of the oil phase; the ratio of the flow rates of the oil phase and the water phase is 1:1, and the flow rates of the oil phase and the water phase are preferably 20-50 mu L/min.
Further, the inner diameter of the microchannel reactor is 1.0mm, the length of the microchannel reactor is 5-10 m, and the inner diameter of the microchannel reactor is preferably 1.0mm, and the length of the microchannel reactor is preferably 5 m; the inlet and outlet are respectively connected with a section of silica gel hose of 20-30 cm, preferably 20 cm.
Further, the microchannel reaction conditions are as follows: the temperature is 30 ℃, and the oil phase and the water phase respectively carry out continuous flow reaction for 60min in the reaction channel at the flow rate of 20 mu L/min.
The water bath heating is generally a water bath kettle capable of accommodating a micro-channel, and the precision of the water bath temperature is controlled to be +/-1 ℃; the flow rate of the 2 constant flow pumps can be controlled to be 20-150 mu L/min. The raw material bottle is a lightproof container, is usually a brown glass bottle, and requires the height-diameter ratio to be more than 2 so that the oil phase and the water phase are obviously separated.
The oil phase is astaxanthin oil containing astaxanthin ester, and is haematococcus pluvialis powder processed by CO2Supercritical extracting, adding safflower seed oil or oleum Olivarum, and blending to obtain oily substance, which is called astaxanthin oil, wherein the astaxanthin ester content is 50mg/g, the free astaxanthin content is 2.13mg/g, and the appearance is brownish red.
The lipase is a commercial lipase in the market, is derived from Aspergillus niger, and has the enzyme activity unit of 50000U/g.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects:
the method utilizes lipase to catalyze the hydrolysis of astaxanthin ester in haematococcus pluvialis oil in the microchannel reactor, has short catalytic reaction time and higher conversion rate, and improves the content of free astaxanthin in the astaxanthin oil from 2.13mg/g to 19.7mg/g by 8.25 times; meanwhile, the method utilizes lipase to catalyze the hydrolysis of astaxanthin ester in the micro-channel for the first time to prepare free astaxanthin, reduces the reaction cost and has the advantages of economy and high efficiency.
(IV) description of the drawings
FIG. 1: schematic of a microchannel reactor employed in the present invention.
FIG. 2: standard curve of astaxanthin concentration.
FIG. 3: HPLC (high Performance liquid chromatography) spectrum of astaxanthin standard (dissolved in acetone and at a concentration of 0.05 g/L).
FIG. 4: HPLC profile of non-enzymolyzed astaxanthin oil.
FIG. 5: HPLC profile of enzymatically digested astaxanthin oil (example 4 sample).
(V) detailed description of the preferred embodiment
The scope of the invention is further illustrated by the following examples, but is not limited thereto.
Example 1
Referring to fig. 1, the microchannel reactor apparatus used in the embodiment of the present invention includes a microchannel reactor, 2 constant flow pumps, a water bath, and a sample container. The microchannel reactor is a stainless steel tube with the inner diameter of 1.0mm and the length of 5m, one end of the stainless steel tube is provided with an inlet, the other end of the stainless steel tube is provided with an outlet, the inlet and the outlet are respectively connected with a section of 20cm silica gel hose, and the inner diameter of the silica gel hose is equal to that of the microchannel.
The preparation method comprises the steps of taking haematococcus pluvialis astaxanthin oil containing 50mg/g of astaxanthin ester as an oil phase, taking 2000U/mL of lipase aqueous solution as a water phase, and placing the oil phase and the water phase in a dark brown container (namely a raw material bottle), wherein the oil phase is positioned at the upper layer, and the water phase is positioned at the lower layer. The microchannel reactor is placed in a water bath kettle, the oil phase and the water phase are respectively connected with the inlet of the microchannel reactor in a T-shaped mode through a constant flow pump, the outlet of the microchannel reactor is communicated with a brown container for containing a sample, and the outlet of the microchannel reactor is positioned at the upper end of the brown container. Wherein the water phase is prepared by weighing 0.4g of lipase powder, pouring into a mortar, adding a proper amount of phosphate buffer solution with pH of 6.0 and 20mmol/L, grinding into paste, and fixing the volume to 10mL to prepare a lipase water solution with the enzyme activity of 2000U/mL.
The microchannel reaction conditions are as follows: putting 5g of astaxanthin oil into a brown reagent bottle, and then adding 5.5mL of lipase aqueous solution, wherein the astaxanthin oil is positioned at the upper layer, and the lipase aqueous solution is positioned at the lower layer; under the drive of a constant flow pump, the oil phase and the water phase respectively enter a microchannel reactor for reaction through a T joint at the flow rate of 20 mu L/min, the temperature of the reactor is controlled to be 30 ℃ through a water bath thermostat, the water phase and the oil phase flow in the reaction channel for reaction for 60min, and the astaxanthin oil enzymatic hydrolysate flows into the upper layer of a raw material bottle through the outlet of the microchannel reactor. Transferring the upper layer astaxanthin oil enzymolysis liquid, centrifuging at 10000r/min at room temperature for 5min, transferring the upper layer astaxanthin oil, and analyzing the content of free astaxanthin in the upper layer astaxanthin oil by HPLC.
HPLC analysis shows that the content of free astaxanthin in the astaxanthin oil prepared by the method is increased to 9.45mg/g from the original 2.13mg/g and is increased by 3.44 times.
The HPLC analysis method of the free astaxanthin comprises the following steps: 1mL of astaxanthin oil is put in 5mL of acetone, oscillated on a vortex oscillator for 3min and then ultrasonically extracted for 45min under the conditions of ice water bath, 40KHz and 100W; filtering, taking the filtrate, diluting with acetone by a proper multiple according to the content of free astaxanthin in the filtrate, filtering with a 0.45 mu m microporous membrane, and analyzing by HPLC. The HPLC analysis conditions were as follows: LC-20AD high performance liquid chromatograph (Shimadzu instruments, Japan), the chromatographic column is Phenomenex LunaC18 column (5 μm, 250mm × 4.6mm), the column temperature is room temperature; isocratically eluting with 95:5 methanol and water for 25min, and isocratically eluting with 65:35 methanol and tert-butyl methyl ether for 20min at flow rate of 1.0mL/min, detection wavelength of 476nm, and sample amount of 20 μ L. The content of free astaxanthin in the astaxanthin oil was calculated from the standard astaxanthin concentration-peak area calibration curve (FIG. 2) under the same analysis conditions.
Example 2
The buffer solution for preparing the lipase aqueous solution in the example 1 is changed into a phosphate buffer solution with the pH value of 7.0 and 20mmol/L, the continuous flow reaction time in the microchannel is changed into 192min, and the other operations are the same as the example 1, and HPLC analysis shows that the content of free astaxanthin in the astaxanthin oil prepared by the method is improved to 10.7mg/g from the original 2.13mg/g and is improved by 4.02 times.
Example 3
The buffer solution for preparing the lipase aqueous solution in the example 1 is changed into a phosphate buffer solution with pH of 7.0 and 20mmol/L, the oil phase and the water phase respectively enter a microchannel reactor for reaction through a T joint at the flow rate of 50 mu L/min, the temperature of the reactor is controlled to be 40 ℃ through a water bath thermostat, the water phase and the oil phase flow in the reaction channel for reaction for 128min, and other operations are the same as the example 1.
HPLC analysis shows that the content of free astaxanthin in the astaxanthin oil prepared by the method is increased from the original 2.13mg/g to 11.1mg/g, and is increased by 4.21 times.
Example 4
The lipase aqueous solution in example 1 was changed to: weighing 0.8g of lipase powder, pouring the lipase powder into a mortar, adding a proper amount of phosphate buffer solution with pH of 6.5 and 20mmol/L, grinding the mixture into paste, and then fixing the volume to 10mL to prepare a lipase aqueous solution with the enzyme activity of 4000U/mL.
The oil phase and the water phase enter the microchannel through the T joint at the flow rate of 50 mul/min for reaction, the temperature of the reactor is controlled to be 40 ℃ through a water bath thermostat, the water phase and the oil phase flow in the reaction channel for reaction for 128min, and other operations are the same as example 1.
HPLC analysis (FIGS. 3 and 4) showed that the astaxanthin oil prepared by the above method had a free astaxanthin content increased from 2.13mg/g to 19.7mg/g, which was 8.25-fold higher than the original one.
Example 5
The microchannel reactor of example 1 was changed to a stainless steel tube having an inner diameter of 1.0mm and a length of 10 m. The buffer solution for preparing the lipase aqueous solution is changed into a phosphate buffer solution with the pH value of 7.0 and 20 mmol/L. The oil phase and the water phase enter the microchannel reactor through a T joint at the flow rate of 50 mu L/min for reaction, the temperature of the reactor is controlled to be 40 ℃ through a water bath thermostat, the water phase and the oil phase flow and react for 128min in the reaction channel, and other operations are the same as example 1.
HPLC analysis shows that the content of free astaxanthin in the astaxanthin oil prepared by the method is increased from the original 2.13mg/g to 13.1mg/g by 5.15 times.