Full Length Research Paper

Optimization of enantioselective production of chiral epichlorohydrin catalyzed by a novel epoxide hydrolase from domestic duck liver by response surface methodology

Xiuquan Ling¹, Dingqiang Lu^1,2*, Jun Wang¹, Qingbo Tu¹, Wei Ren³ and Pingkai Ouyang¹

¹School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing 210009, P.R. China.

²Jiangsu Provincial Institute of Material Medica, Nanjing 210009, P.R. China.

³College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing 210009, P.R. China.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ludingqiang@njut.edu.cn. Tel: 86-25-83285202.

Accepted 8 September, 2009

   Abstract

Enantiopure epichlorohydrin is a valuable epoxide intermediate for preparing optically active pharmaceuticals. In the present study, a novel epoxide hydrolase prepared from domestic duck liver was used as biocatalyst for producing (S)-epichlorohydrin which preparation process was optimized by response surface methodology. Response surface methodology was performed to evaluate the effects of reaction temperature, pH and reaction time on production of (S)-epichlorohydrin by the novel epoxide hydrolase. (S)-epichlorohydrin production was optimized by Box-Behnken. Three reaction parameters were optimized as follows: pH value 7.10, reaction temperature 32.44°C and reaction time 11.06 h. The adequately high R² value 0.9599 and F score 13.29 indicated the statistical significance of the model. The enantioselective excess of (S)-epichlorohydrin after optimization was 86.14% while the predicted value was 85.55%. In conclusion, enantioselective hydrolysis conditions optimization to enhance optical purity of (S)-epichlorohydrin could be easily and effectively done by response surface methodology; the developed production process indicated the novel epoxide hydrolase from domestic duck liver was high efficient biocatalyst for preparing enantiopure epichlorohydrin.

Key words: Chiral epichlorohydrin, enantioselective production, epoxide hydrolase, domestic duck liver, response surface methodology.