Lipid Profiles in Preliminary Germinated Brown Rice Beverages Compared to Non-Germinated Brown and White Rice Beverages

Brown rice is nutritionally superior to white rice, yet oil rancidity can be problematic during processing and storage regarding sensory attributes. Germinating brown rice is known to generally increase some health-promoting compounds. In response to increasing the consumption of plant-based beverages, we sprouted unstabilized brown rice, using green technologies and saccharification enzymes for value-added beverages. ‘Rondo’ paddy rice was dehulled, sorted and germinated, and beverages were produced and compared against non-germinated brown and white brewers rice beverages. The preliminary germinated brown rice beverage contained significantly higher concentrations of total lipids, diacylglycerols, triacylglycerols, free sterols, phytosterol esters and oryzanols than both non-germinated brown and white rice beverages. White rice beverages had significantly higher free fatty acids. Significant lipid losses occurred during sieving, yet novel germinated brown rice beverages contained appreciable levels of valuable health-beneficial lipids, which appeared to form natural emulsions. Further pilot plant investigations should be scaled-up for pasteurization and adjusted through emulsification to ameliorate sieving losses.

Lipases as Effective Green Biocatalysts for Phytosterol Esters’ Production: A Review

Lipases are versatile enzymes widely used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. They are green biocatalysts with a high potential for industrial use compared to traditional chemical methods. In recent years, lipases have been used to synthesize a wide variety of molecules of industrial interest, and extraordinary results have been reported. In this sense, this review describes the important role of lipases in the synthesis of phytosterol esters, which have attracted the scientific community’s attention due to their beneficial effects on health. A systematic search for articles and patents published in the last 20 years with the terms “phytosterol AND esters AND lipase” was carried out using the Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo, and Google Scholar databases, and the results showed that Candida rugosa lipases are the most relevant biocatalysts for the production of phytosterol esters, being used in more than 50% of the studies. The optimal temperature and time for the enzymatic synthesis of phytosterol esters mainly ranged from 30 to 101 °C and from 1 to 72 h. The esterification yield was greater than 90% for most analyzed studies. Therefore, this manuscript presents the new technological approaches and the gaps that need to be filled by future studies so that the enzymatic synthesis of phytosterol esters is widely developed.

Enzymatic preparation of phytosterol esters with fatty acids from high-oleic sunflower seed oil using response surface methodology

Enzymatic preparation of phytosterol esters with fatty acids from high-oleic sunflower seed oil has been established with very mild reaction conditions.

Phase Behavior and Polymorphism of Saturated and Unsaturated Phytosterol Esters

This study investigated how the physicochemical characteristics of phytosterol esters are influenced by the chain length and degree of unsaturation of the fatty acid ester moiety. Saturated and unsaturated phytosterol esters (PEs) were synthesized by the esterification of different types of fatty acids (stearic, palmitic, lauric, oleic, and linoleic acid) to β-sitosterol. The non-isothermal crystallization and melting behavior of the pure PEs were analyzed. It was proven by X-ray diffraction that saturated β-sitosteryl esters and β-sitosteryl oleate formed a bilayer crystal structure. The lamellar spacings of the bilayer structure decreased with decreasing fatty acid chain length and with an increasing degree in unsaturation. The degree of unsaturation of the fatty acid chain of the β-sitosteryl esters also influenced the type of subcell packing of the fatty acid moieties in the bilayer structure, whether or not a metastable or stable liquid crystalline phase was formed during cooling. Furthermore, it was found that the melting temperature and enthalpy of the β-sitosteryl esters increased with an increasing fatty acid chain length while they decreased with an increasing degree of unsaturation. The microscopic analyses demonstrated that β-sitosteryl oleate formed much smaller spherulites than their saturated β-sitosteryl analogues.