Synthesis of Food Flavors by Enzymatic Esterification Process

Flavors and fragrances play an important role in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. This has led to the development of nature identical artificial flavoring compounds which can be used in different products to compensate the loss or boost the flavor. Although the natural flavor may contain nearly a hundred different compounds, but certain single esters resembles the natural odors and are often used in the food industry as artificial flavors and fragrances. Most of the flavor compounds are produced by traditional methods as chemical synthesis or extraction from natural sources. Recent interest for natural products led the flavor industry to seek new methods like biocatalytic flavor synthesis, to obtain flavor compounds naturally. These reactions can be carried out under mild operating conditions with high specificity and reduced side reactions. High purity flavor compounds can be produced without expensive separation techniques. In the present study, (CALB) Candida antartica lipase B has been used for the production of different flavoring such as geranyl acetate (Rose), citronellyl acetate (Lemon), isoamyl acetate (Banana). The results indicate that up to 79 % conversion could be obtained under the specified parameters. The process can be suitably scaled up for commercial production of food flavors.