Production of rare sugars by the subcritical treatment in aqueous polyols

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K07814
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Food science
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Kobayashi Takashi 京都大学, 農学研究科, 助教 (70416311)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 亜臨界水 / 希少糖 / 緩衝液

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Subcritical water is a highly reactive yet harmless solvent. When an attempt was made to synthesize rare sugars from common sugars by subcritical water treatment, almost no rare sugars were produced. However, the addition of ethanol to water improved the yield of rare sugars, although the addition of ethanol decreases the solubility of sugars in a medium. Therefore, aqueous polyols were adopted for the production. However, since no significant improvement in the rare sugar yield was observed, we attempted to synthesize rare sugars in a subcritical water containing phosphate buffer. As a result, significant improvement in the yield of rare sugars of 10 times or more was observed as compared with the conventional methods.

Free Research Field

食品工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

希少糖は自然界に存在量の少ない糖類の総称である。希少糖の中には有用な生理活性を持つものがあると考えられているが、現在のところ機能性を評価するための希少糖生産プロセスは確立されていない。そこで、我々は亜臨界流体中で希少糖の合成を試みた。リン酸緩衝液を反応溶媒にすることで、低温で迅速に、かつ効率的に希少糖を合成できた。これは、健康増進社会の推進に寄与するとともに、省エネルギーで環境負荷の小さい希少糖生産プロセスでもある。種々の希少糖の製造が実現することにより、持続可能な社会の実現に寄与することが出来、SDGsにも見合う。