Fish oil products in the form of triacylglycerols generally have relatively low contents of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and so it is of potential research and industrial interest to enrich the related contents in commercial products. Thereby an economical and efficient two-stage preparation of EPA and DHA enriched fish oil triacylglycerols is proposed in this study. The first stage was the partial hydrolysis of fish oil by only 0.2 wt.‰ AY "Amano" 400SD which led to increases of EPA and DHA contents in acylglycerols from 19.30 and 13.09 wt % to 25.95 and 22.06 wt %, respectively. Subsequently, products of the first stage were subjected to transesterification with EPA and DHA enriched fatty acid ethyl esters (EDEE) as the second stage to afford EPA and DHA enriched fish oil triacylglycerols by using as low as 2 wt % Novozyme 435. EDEEs prepared from fish oil ethyl ester, and recycled DHA and EPA, respectively, were applied in this stage. Final products prepared with two different sources of EDEEs were composed of 97.62 and 95.92 wt % of triacylglycerols, respectively, with EPA and DHA contents of 28.20 and 21.41 wt % for the former and 25.61 and 17.40 wt % for the latter. Results not only demonstrate this two-stage process's capability and industrial value for enriching EPA and DHA in fish oil products, but also offer new opportunities for the development of fortified fish oil products.
Keywords: enzymatic hydrolysis; enzymatic transesterification; urea complexation.