Design of functional glycerol-based deep eutectic solvents as reaction media for enzymatic deacidification of high-acid rice bran oil

Abstract The effectiveness of deacidification technologies for high-acid rice bran oil (HRBO) are still one of the main challenges in the industrialization process of rice bran oil (RBO). A novel function of glycerol-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) as an acyl acceptor in combination with lipases for enzymatic esterification of deacidification of HRBO was described in this study. The maximum deacidification efficiency of 92.38% was obtained under the optimized reaction conditions. Molecular docking simulation indicated that the minimum binding energy of Novozym 435 was lower than those of Lipozyme TL IM and Lipozyme RM IM, which might be one of the underlying mechanisms for its better performance. Additionally, γ-oryzanols, tocopherols and tocotrienols were retained in deacidified RBO. We are convinced that the reusability of biocatalyst and DESs systems provide an alternative strategy to design a facile, environmentally-friendliness DESs towards economic feasibility of applications and processes for oil-refined industries.