Application of solvent engineering to optimize lipase-catalyzed 1,3-diglyacylcerols by mixture response surface methodology.

1,3-Diacylglycerol (DAG) has been introduced in Japan as a cooking oil under the trade name of Econa to reduce body fat accumulation. Solvent engineering was applied to determine the optimum solvent mixtures for the lipase-catalyzed synthesis of 1,3-DAG by mixture response surface methodology. n-Hexane was required to maintain the lipase activity and the product selectivity could be adjusted by changing the hydrophobicity of reaction medium. The optimum yield (approximately 40%) of 1,3-DAG synthesis was obtained with n-hexane/octane (1:1, v/v).