MICROWAVE ASSISTED ENZYMATIC SYNTHESIS OF XYLITOL Adina Ionuta Gavrila, Petre Chipurici, Adriana Zecheru, Teodor Constantin

"Politehnica" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Material Science, Bucharest, Romania

Xylitol is a special sweetener comparable to sucrose, but less caloric, with excellent organoleptic and cariostatic properties. It is an important component of oral hygiene products, sugarless chewing gums, diabetic foods, candies and other products1,2. Enzymatic synthesis of xylitol is an alternative to chemical catalysis. The purpose of this paper is to produce xylitol using the microwave process combined with microbial reduction. Xylitol has been prepared using xylose as starting material. The raw material was separated from the hemicellulose obtained by hydrolysis of the lignocellulosic biomass. Further experiments have been carried out in order to determine the influence of microwave irradiation on the enzymatic catalysis reactions. The obtained results are compared in terms of productivity and product yield with data presented in the literature.

References 1. R. C. L. B. Rodrigues, M. G. A. Felipe, I. C. Roberto, M. Vitoloe - Bioprocess Biosyst Eng, 2003 26: 103107. 2. W. C. Liaw, C. S. Chen, W. S. Chang, K.P. Chen J. Bioscience Bioeng., 2008, 105(2), 97105.