The near-ideal catalytic property of Candida antarctica lipase A to highly concentrate n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in monoacylglycerols via one-step ethanolysis of triacylglycerols.

Declining quantity/quality of available n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) resources demand innovative technology to concentrate n-3 PUFAs from low quality oils into value-added products/health-beneficial ingredients rich in n-3 PUFAs. This work proposed the catalytic property and specificity of an ideal enzyme required to tackle this task and identified Candida antarctica lipase A (CAL-A) is such a near-ideal enzyme in practice, which concentrates n-3 PUFAs from 25% to 27% in oils to a theoretically closer value 90% in monoacylglycerols (MAGs) via one-step enzymatic ethanolysis. Non-regiospecificity and high non-n-3 PUFAs preference of CAL-A are the catalytic feature to selectively cleave non-n-3 PUFAs in all 3 positions of triacylglycerols (TAGs); while high ethanol/TAGs ratio, low operation temperature and high tolerance to polar ethanol are essential conditions beyond biocatalyst itself. C-13 Nuclear magnetic resonance ((13)C NMR) analysis and competitive factor estimation verified the hypothesis and confirmed the plausible suggestion of catalytic mechanism of CAL-A.