Enzyme-Catalyzed Synthesis and Characterization of Betulinic Acid Ester

Yamin Yasin¹*, Mahiran Basri², Faujan Ahmad² and Abu Bakar Salleh³

¹International Education Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kampus Seksyen 17, 40200 Shah Alam, Selangor, (Malaysia) ²Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, ³Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM Serdang, Selangor, (Malaysia)

Betulinic acid, 3b-hydroxy-lup-20(29)-ene-oic acid is a natural product isolated from several genuses of higher plants. The isolated active compound has a molecular formula of C30H48O3, as determined by high-resolution mass spectral analysis. Betulinic acid has attracted attention due to its important pharmacological properties, such as anti-cancer and anti-HIV activities. In order to obtain derivatives potentially useful for detailed pharmacological studies, enzyme was introduced in this study. Enzymatic reaction of betulinic acid with benzoyl chloride using Novozyme as catalyst produced ester of betulinic acid with 45% yield. The reaction was carried out at temperature of 500 C for 12 hrs with chloroform as solvent. The product was identified based on spectroscopic data.

Betulinic acid; betulinic acid ester; biocatalyst