Biocatalysis and the Production of Flavor Compounds
The biocatalytic reduction of activated alkenes by ene reductases offers an bio-based alternative to metal- or organocatalyzed double bond reduction. In our recent publication, we describe a new biocatalytic process to reduce 2E-decenal.
Ene Reductases are natural catalysts that can be applied to development sustainable industrial processes for the flavor and fragrance industry. A library of 20 wild-type enzymes was screened to investigate the synthetic potential to produce flavor compounds including decanal. Our screen identified several enzymes efficiently reducing 2E-decenal as well as other interesting target substrates. Five enzymes exhibited high activities at increased substrate concentrations (10g/L). Taken into account other properties (thermostability, solubility, activity at 10°) an ene reductase originating from Pseudomonas brassicacearum was used to optimize the reduction of 2E-decenal. A high conversion yield (>93%) could be achieved with 40g/L substrate in a 100mL scale.
Reference:
Development of an Ene Reductase-Based Biocatalytic Process for the Production of Flavor Compounds. A. Papadopoulou, C. Peters, S. Borchert, K. Steiner & R. Buller. Org. Process Res. Dev. June 14, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.2c00096