High-Efficiency Enzymatic Synthesis of Lutein Esters by a Graphene-like Mesoporous Carbon-Based Lipase Nanoreactor

Lutein exhibits remarkable physiological activities such as retinal protection, antioxidant, anti-cancer, and other functions, although it decomposes easily under light or heat. Enzymatic esterification of lutein is vital for its stability and bioavailability in lipophilic foods. Therefore, efficient and green esterification preparation methods are greatly needed. In this work, which prepared graphene-like mesoporous carbons (GMCs) as a matrix, a new biocatalyst emerged to immobilize Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) and to catalyze the esterification of lutein and succinic anhydride to generate lutein diester. It was characterized by TEM, XRD, TGA, XPS, and BET to verify the successful preparation. The biocatalyst displayed up to 93.32% esterification rate at 45 °C after 72 h, which was 1.56 times higher than that of the free enzyme, and also retained more than 70% of its initial activity after 8 times reuse. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest esterification rate of lutein diester synthesis, which provides a further idea for the green preparation of lutein esters.