Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 9:00 AM
S59

Biocatalytic production and structural determination of omega-3 concentrates

Jaroslav Kralovec, Weijie Wang, Paul Mugford, and Erick Reyes-Suarez. Research and Development, Ocean Nutrition Canada, 101 Research Drive, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 4T6, Canada

It  has been suggested that supplementation with omega-3 concentrates could moderate excessive omega-6 mediated inflammatory processes and prevent or slow down the progress of immune, inflammatory and vascular disease, as well as major depression, and even suicide and homicide. Not surprisingly, there has been an increasing demand for omega–3 concentrates, especially those enriched in eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids. This is despite the introduction of effective drugs by the pharma industry that diminish pro-inflammatory effects of omega-6 fatty acids. Two enzyme driven omega-3 concentrate producing technologies were developed at Ocean Nutrition Canada laboratories and transferred in different variants to the manufacturing scale. The first methodology is based on enzymatic trans-esterification of the omega-3 ethyl ester concentrates with glycerol. The second methodology is based on the selective removal of saturated fatty acid residues from triglyceride entities of fish oil, followed by re-esterification of the generated mono- and diacylglycerides with EPA or DHA in the presence of Candida antarctica lipase B. A powerful 13C NMR technique was developed to investigate positional distribution of fatty acid residues in triacylglyceride oils and the integrity of positional distribution of the fatty acid residues after trans-esterification, hydrolysis and re-esterification was later studied. The structural assessment revealed differences in the positional distribution of EPA and DHA between the original and reconstituted triacylglyceride oils. The degree of significance of these differences will be assessed initially in the stability tests and later in in vivo lipid absorption studies.