As wax esters are widely used in cosmetics, pharmaceutical and industrial applications, the demand for such types of lipids is on the rise. Having been a reliable chemical supplier for almost two decades, Alfa Chemistry instantly acts to meet customers’ purchasing demands and offers a variety of wax esters for them to choose from.
How to Synthesize Wax Esters? Three Synthetic Routes
Wax esters are esters formed by long-chain fatty acids and fatty alcohols. Owing to
their biodegradability and good lubricity, wax esters can be used as base materials
for advanced lubricants and advanced emollient oils for aviation, machinery, and
chemical industries as well as for daily cosmetics and other fields. Wax esters can be
divided into saturated and unsaturated types.
The wax esters produced in the marine environment are called marine wax esters
and are mainly distributed in marine animals. The number of carbon atoms of fatty
acids in marine wax esters is generally C14-C22, and in surface organisms, C20:5 and
C22:6 are polyunsaturated fats.
Oil fish is a deep-sea fish that contains many wax esters. More than 40% of its total
weight is wax ester. Due to the high melting point of wax esters, the human body
cannot decompose and absorb them. Therefore, after the human body ingests
excessive wax esters, the intestines will be stimulated and diarrhea will occur due to
inability to digest and absorb wax ester, but this will not cause poisoning.
Synthetic route of wax esters in microorganisms
Wax esters are important storage lipids in microorganisms. When cells contain too
much free fatty acids, they are converted into non-toxic storage complexes such as
wax esters to protect cells from damage. In 2002, Ishige et al. found that long-chain
fatty alcohols for wax ester formation can be synthesized by the corresponding fatty
acyl-CoA reduction reaction in two steps. Kalscheuer et al. took Acineto-bacter
calcoaceticus strain ADP1 (later named as Acinetobacter bay-lyi strain ADP1) as the
research object and conducted a detailed study on the biosynthetic route of the wax
esters. First, an NADPH-dependent long-chain fatty acyl-CoA reductase (Acr1)
catalyzes the reduction of fatty acyl-CoA to fatty aldehydes. Acr1 is located on the
plasma membrane and catalyzes the reduction of C14-C22 acyl-CoA. It is further
reduced to the corresponding fatty alcohol by an NADPH-de