Buah merah oil (BO) has been shown to exert several biological activities. However, the feature of containing large amounts (∼30 w/w%) of free fatty acids (FFA) limits its food application. Conventional chemical refining procedures for removing FFA ...
Buah merah oil (BO) has been shown to exert several biological activities. However, the feature of containing large amounts (∼30 w/w%) of free fatty acids (FFA) limits its food application. Conventional chemical refining procedures for removing FFA might lead to the elimination of health beneficial components. We prepared FFA-free BO by an immobilized lipase-catalyzed esterification of FFA in raw BO with glycerol added to the oil under reduced pressure of 0.4 kPa. Immobilization of Eversa® Transform 2.0 on Duolite A568 was selected as the optimal system for biocatalysis. Optimal conditions for minimizing the FFA content while maximizing the triacylglycerol content were: temperature, 50°C; reaction time, 48 h; molar ratio of glycerol-to-FFA, 1:3; and enzyme loading, 5 wt% of total substrates. Under the optimal conditions, BO containing 0.6 area% FFA and 93.8 area% triacylglycerols were obtained. These results suggest that the immobilized Eversa® Transform 2.0-catalyzed esterification of raw BO with glycerol is an effective tool for the prepration of deacidified BO.