Novel and efficient solid to solid transphosphatidylation of two phenylalkanols in a biphasic GRAS medium

•A solid to solid reaction system for enzymatic transphosphatidylation.•Utilization of a food grade phospholipase D and GRAS reaction medium.•A procedure easily scalable with very simple downstreaming process.

A solid to solid reaction system for transphosphatidylation of phosphatidylcholine with two different phenylalkanols, namely tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol has been developed. The enzymatic reactions were carried out in the presence of a food grade phospholipase D at very mild reaction conditions (40 °C). All enzymatic reactions were performed in a biphasic GRAS medium comprised of sodium acetate buffer and ethyl butyrate. High volumetric productivity (up to 130 g of phosphatidylcholine per liter of reaction mixture) and equimolar ratio of substrates have been utilized. The ratio weight of product to weight of biocatalyst (100:1 w/w), has been also taken into account. At these reaction conditions, up to 150 mmol/L of both, phosphatidyltyrosol and phosphatidylhydroxytyrosol were obtained.

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