Novel Biocatalyst for Efficient Synthesis of Catecholic Products

Catecholic compounds have found broad applications in various fields such as foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals due to their huge pharmacological effects and promising health benefits. In this work, tyrosinase-Cu-3(PO4)(2) hybrid composites (TCHCs) were employed as a new biocatalyst for regioselective ortho-hydroxylation reactions to produce two typical catecholic products, L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) and piceatannol, with excellent productivities obtained (254 mg/L/h and 1.9 g/L/h, respectively) that are the highest among the data reported in literature. This new biocatalyst offers advantages such as greenness, easy and inexpensive preparation, and excellent catalytic activity and stability. The recyclability and storage stability of TCHCs can be significantly enhanced by encapsulation into copper alginate gels. The developed TCHC-alginate beads maintained their original activity for over 1 month and over 10 days when stored at 30 and 60 degrees C, respectively, and retained 78.6% of the original activity after reaction for 10 cycles.