title: Specificity of papaya lipase in esterification with respect to the chemical structure of substrates.
abstract: Esterification, catalyzed by papaya (Carica papaya) lipase (CPL), was studied with various alcohols and carboxylic acids under competitive conditions. Acids studied were straight-chain saturates of different chain lengths, with octanoic acid as the reference. Alcohols chosen were aliphatic straight-chain, branched, secondary, tertiary, terpene, and aromatic alcohols of different chain lengths, using 1-hexanol as the reference. The initial reaction rate increased with increasing chain length of the acid from C4:0 to C18:0, followed by a slight decrease with C20:0. In the case of alcohols, an optimum chain length of 8 carbon atoms was obtained for the straight-chain aliphatic group (C2 to C16). Ethanol, 1-propanol, and secondary and tertiary alcohols showed rather low reactivity. Branching of the alcohols was found not to affect the reactivity in esterification; among the terpenes, beta-citronellol [(2E)-3, 7-dimethyl-6-octenol] and geraniol [(2E)-3,7-dimethylocta-2, 6-dien-1-ol] were found to be more reactive than nerol [(2Z)-3, 7-dimethylocta-2,6-dien-1-ol]. The highest reaction rate was found for the aromatic benzyl alcohol (phenylmethanol).
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biochemistry and Technology of Lipids, H. P. Kaufmann-Institute, Federal Centre for Cereal, Potato & Lipid Research, Piusallee 68, D-48147 Muenster, Germany.
authors.forename: N N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Gandhi
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
mesh_terms: D005638:Fruit / Q000201:enzymology*; D008049:Lipase / Q000378:metabolism*; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D008049:Lipase