Catalytic oxidation of concentrated orange oil phase by synthetic metallic complexes biomimetic to MMO enzyme.

Background: This paper reports the catalytic oxidation of the concentrated orange oil phase using the complexes [Fe(III)(BMPP)Cl(micro-O)Fe(III)Cl(3)], [Cu(II)(BTMEA)(2)Cl]Cl and [Co(II)(BMPP)]Cl(2) biomimetic to methane monooxygenase enzyme as catalysts and hydrogen peroxide as oxidant.

Results: The reaction products of oil oxidation, mainly nootkatone, were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. A screening of catalysts was performed through a full 2(3) experimental design, varying the temperature from 30 to 70 degrees C, the catalyst concentration from 7.0 x 10(-4) to 1.5 x 10(-3) mol L(-1) and the oxidant/substrate molar ratio from 1:1 to 3:1. The results of reaction kinetics employing the most promising catalysts showed that conversions to nootkatone of up to 8% were achieved after 16 h at 70 degrees C.

Conclusion: The results obtained in this study in terms of nootkatone production should be considered encouraging, since a real, industrially collected, raw material, instead of pure valencene, was employed in the reaction experiments, with a final content about ten times that present in the original concentrated oil.