Method of converting RB to RD by using cutinase under stepwise changing temperatures

Abstract

The present invention provides a method to produce RD by using a cutinase to catalyze the esterification of RB under stepwise cooling temperatures, which is related to the field of biosynthesis of organic compounds. The method uses a cutinase from Thermobifida fusca to catalyze the esterification of RB and sophorose to produce RD. The stepwise cooling temperatures are used to reduce the heat inactivation of the enzyme as well as to improve the mass transfer. The method catalyzes the esterification of RB to produce RD in a solvent such as methanol, DMSO and DMF. The reaction is safe, efficient and highly selective. In addition, the method uses stepwise additions of substrate RB and cooling temperatures for the esterification reaction. In this way, it speeds up the initial reaction rate, increases the amount of solved RB as it is converted to RD, and improves the mass transfer to further increase the reaction speed. In summary, the method uses moderate reaction conditions, and has a high yield and a simple purification procedure.

Claims

1. A method for producing Rebaudioside D (RD) from Rebaudioside B (RB), wherein said method uses a cutinase to catalyze the esterification of RB and sophorose to produce RD under stepwise cooling temperatures.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reaction equation of esterification of RB to produce RD is shown below: ##STR00002##

3. The method of claim 1, comprises the following steps: (1) dissolving substrate RB in a solvent to 10-20 g/L; (2) adding the cutinase to the substrate at 55 C. to obtain a reaction mixture; (3) mixing well the reaction mixture obtained from step (2) and heating it up to 70 C. to react for 0.5-1 hour; (4) replenishing the reaction mixture with 10-20 g/L RB and continuing the reaction at 60 C. for 1-1.5 hours; and (5) replenishing the reaction mixture again with 30-50 g/L RB and continuing the reaction at 60 C. for 2-6 hours.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the added cutinase can be an enzyme solution, powdered enzyme, or immobilized enzyme.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the cutinase can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological methods.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein said solvent is selected one or more from the group consisting of methanol, dimethyl sulfoxide, dimethylformamide, and the solvent thereof with 0.03%-0.3% (w/w) pH 6.0 phosphate buffer.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the dosage of said cutinase is 100-500 U/g RB.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein, after said reaction is finished, the solvent is removed by vacuum distillation and the remaining reaction product is recrystallized in an aqueous methanol solution (90%) for 2-3 times to obtain a white crystal of RD.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein, when 60% RB is converted to RD at 60 C., 4A molecular is added to remove water; when RB conversion rate reaches 70%-78%, the solvent is removed by vacuum distillation and the remaining reaction product is recrystallized in an aqueous methanol solution (90%) for 2-3 times to obtain a white crystal of RD.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0026] FIG. 1. HPLC chromatogram of RD standard sample.

[0027] FIG. 2. HPLC chromatogram of RD produced in Example 1.

[0028] FIG. 3. .sup.1H NMR chromatogram of RD produced in Example 1.

[0029] FIG. 4. .sup.13C NMR chromatogram of RD produced in Example 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0030] RD detection method: the modified JECFA (Steviol Glycosides INS No. 960) method is used, and the samples are tested by HPLC.

[0031] Chromatographic condition: C18 column, 4.6250 mm, acetonitrile 31.3% (use phosphate to regulate the pH to 2.6), isocratic elution, the flow rate at 1 mL/min, carbon column temperature at 40 C., UV detection wavelength of 210 nm, and the inlet sample volume is 10 L.

[0032] The equation for calculating RD conversion:

[00001]$\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{RB}\left(\%\right)=\frac{C_0-C\left(\mathrm{RB}\right)}{C_0}& \left(1\right)\end{array}$

[0033] C.sub.0RB's initial concentration

[0034] C(RB) the remaining RB's concentration after reaction

[0035] RB's quality fraction is calculated by the equation below (refer to the 2014 Chinese standard GB 8270-2014):

[00002]$\begin{array}{cc}{w}_R=\frac{m_R}{m}\frac{A_a}{A_R}100.Math..Math.\%& \left(2\right)\end{array}$

[0036] m.sub.Rthe dry weight of Rebaudioside A in the Rebaudioside A standard solution, the unit is milligram (mg);

[0037] mthe dry weight of the samples in the solution, the unit is milligram (mg);

[0038] A.sub.athe chromatogram peak area of the Rebaudioside A in the samples;

[0039] A.sub.Rthe chromatogram peak area of the Rebaudioside A in the Rebaudioside A standard solution.

[0040] The mass fraction of RB or RD is calculated by the equation below:

[00003]$\begin{array}{cc}{w}_i=\frac{m_s}{m}\frac{f_i{A}_i}{A_s}100.Math..Math.\%& \left(3\right)\end{array}$

[0041] istands for RB or RD;

[0042] m.sub.sthe dry weight of stevioside in the stevioside standard solution, the unit is mg;

[0043] f.sub.ithe ratio of the i composition and stevioside formula weight:the f.sub.i of RD is 1.40;

[0044] A.sub.ithe chromatogram peak area of the i composition in the samples;

[0045] A.sub.sthe chromatogram peak area of stevioside in the stevioside standard solution.

[0046] The cutinase was produced according to the method described in the Chinese patent titled A kind of high-temperature resistant cutinase and its gene sequence with the patent number of ZL200810020124.0.

EXAMPLES

Example 1

[0047] RB was dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) containing 0.03% (w/w) pH 6.0 phosphate buffer to 10 g/L together with sophorose (stoichiometric to total RB), and 400 U/g cutinase from Thermobifida fusca was added to the substrate at 55 C. The mixture obtained above was well mixed and heated up to 70 C. to react for 0.5-1 hr. 20 g/L RB was then replenished and the reaction was continued at 60 C. for another 1 hr, and another 50 g/L RB was replenished and the reaction was continued at 60 C. for 10 hr. After that, 4A molecular sieve was used to remove water, and the solvent was removed by vacuum distillation. The remaining mixture was recrystallized in aqueous methanol solution (90%) for 2-3 times to obtain the white crystal RD. The mass spectrometric data of the product is shown in Table 1, which indicates that the final product is RD. HPLC chromatogram of the final product (see FIG. 2) indicates that RD produced by this method is in high purity. The final yield of RD was 56% and the purity was 95.7%.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 The mass spectrometric data of the production Sugar position .sup.1H NMR .sup.13C NMR 1 0.75t, 1.90d 40.6 2 1.72t, 2.19m 20.0 3 1.00td, 2.72d 37.9 4 44.3 5 1.10td 57.5 6 2.03d, 2.53d 22.3 7 1.29dd, 41.9 8 42.2 9 0.90d 54.0 10 39.7 11 1.72t, 1.79d 20.5 12 2.03t, 2.19m 37.8 13 86.7 14 1.90d, 3.67m 44.1 15 2.19m 47.7 16 154.1 17 5.01s, 5.68s 104.5 18 1.17s 29.2 19 175.8 20 1.42s 16.9 I 1 6.32m 93.7 2 4.21m 81.2 3 4.21m 77.5 4 4.21m 70.9 5 3.98 78.2 6 4.35m, 4.35m 62.2-63.4 II 1 5.11d 97.8 2 4.35m 80.9 3 4.21m 88.3 4 4.08m 70.0 5 3.97m 78.0 6 4.21m, 4.51m 62.2-63.4 III 1 5.58d 104.7 2 4.21m 76.5 3 4.35m 78.3-79.0 4 4.21m 72.4 5 3.98m 78.3-79.0 6 4.35m, 4.51m 62.2-63.4 VI 1 5.40d 105.7 2 4.08m 76.2 3 4.35m 78.3-79.0 4 4.08m 72.2 5 4.21m 78.3-79.0 6 4.21m, 4.51m 62.2-63.4 V 1 5.48d 104.7 2 4.21m, 75.4 3 4.35m 78.3-79.0 4 4.08m 71.6 5 4.08m 78.3-79.0 6 4.21m, 4.51m 62.2-63.4

Example 2

[0048] RB was dissolved in DMF containing 0.06% (w/w) pH 6.0 phosphate buffer to 20 g/L together with sophorose (stoichiometric to total RA), and 100 U/g cutinase from Thermobifida fusca was added to the substrate at 55 C. The mixture obtained above was mixed well and heated up to 70 C. to react for 1 hr. 20 g/L RB was replenished and the reaction was continued at 60 C. for 1 hr, and 30 g/L RB was replenished and the reaction was continued at 60 C. for 15 hr. 4A molecular sieve was used to remove water, and the solvent was removed by vacuum distillation. The remaining mixture was recrystallized in aqueous methanol solution (90%) for 3 times to obtain the white crystal RD. The production yield of RD was 49.1% and purity was 98.7%.

Example 3

[0049] RB was dissolved in methanol containing 0.3% (w/w) pH 6.0 phosphate buffer to 20 g/L together with sophorose (stoichiometric to total RA), and 30 U/g RB cutinase from Thermobifida fusca was added to the substrate at 55 C. The mixture obtained above was well mixed and heated up to 70 C. to react for 1 hr. 20 g/L RB was replenished and the reaction was continued at 60 C. for 1 hr. RB was replenished again with 30 g/L and the reaction was continued at 60 C. for 10 hr. 4A molecular sieve was used to remove water, and the solvent was removed by vacuum distillation. The remaining mixture was recrystallized in methanol solution (90%) 3 times to get the white RD. The production yield of RD was 50.2% and purity was 98.4%.

Example 4

[0050] This is a comparison example without stepwise changing temperatures.

[0051] RB was dissolved in methanol containing 0.3% (w/w) pH 6.0 phosphate buffer to 20 g/L together with sophorose (stoichiometric to total RA), and 400 U/g RB cutinase from Thermobifida fusca was added to the substrate at 55 C. The mixture obtained above was well mixed and heated up to 70 C. to react for 0.5 hr. 20 g/L RB was replenished and the reaction was continued at 70 C. for 1 hr, and then 30 g/L RB was replenished and the reaction was continued at 70 C. for 12 h. 4A molecular sieve was used to remove water, and the solvent was removed by vacuum distillation. The remaining mixture was recrystallized in methanol solution (90%) 2 times to get the white RD. The final yield of RD was 30.6% and purity was 94.8%.

Example 5

[0052] This is a comparison example without multiple additions of substrate RB.

[0053] RB was dissolved in methanol containing 0.3% (w/w) pH 6.0 phosphate buffer to 80 g/L together with sophorose (stoichiometric to total RA), and 400 U/g RB cutinase from Thermobifida fusca was added at 55 C. The mixture obtained above was well mixed and heated up to 70 C. to react for 15 hr. 4A molecular sieve was used to remove water, and the solvent was removed by vacuum distillation. The remaining mixture was recrystallized in methanol solution (90%) 3 times to get the white RD. The final yield of RD was 31.0% and the purity was 96.8%.

[0054] Comparison of the results in Examples 1-3 and Examples 4-5 shows that the stepwise cooling temperatures used in the production of RD can significantly increase the final yield.

[0055] While the invention has been described in some details for the preferred embodiments, it is not intended to act as a limitation for the invention. One skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes in form and detail can be made without departing from the true scope of the invention. The scope of the invention should be only defined by the claims. All figures, tables, appendices, patents, patent applications and publications, referred to above, are hereby incorporated by reference.