Ergosterol and its derivatives have attracted much attention for a variety of health benefits, such as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. However, ergosterol esters are advantageous because this compound has better solubility than the free ergosterol. In this work, ergosterol laurate was efficiently synthesized for the first time by direct esterification in a solvent-free system. The desired product was purified, characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance, and finally confirmed to be ergosterol laurate. Meanwhile, the effect of various catalysts, catalyst dose, reaction temperature, substrate molar ratio, and reaction time were studied. Both the conversion of ergosterol and the selectivity of the desired product can reach above 89% under the selected conditions: sodium dodecyl sulfate + hydrochloric acid as the catalyst, 2:1 molar ratio of lauric acid/ergosterol, catalyst dose of 4% (w/w), 120 °C, and 2 h. The oil solubility of ergosterol and its laurate was also compared. The results showed that the solubility of ergosterol in oil was significantly improved by direct esterification with lauric acid, thus greatly facilitating the incorporation into a variety of oil-based systems.
Keywords: ergosterol; ergosterol laurate; esterification; oil solubility; solvent-free.