Fatty acid esters (methyl and ethyl) prepared from babassu nut oil were blended with the respective esters from soybean oil. These binary blends (babassu:soybean) were made in proportions of 10:90, 20:80, 30:70, 40:60, and 50:50 (vol%). The ester content of all the blends was higher than 96.5%, which is the minimum value required by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis, ANP). The thermal properties of the babassu, soybean and binary mixtures of esters were investigated by thermogravimetry-differential thermogravimetry (TG/DTG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal stability of the blended biodiesels decreased as the total contents of the babassu esters increased. From the experiments it was found that babassu methanol biodiesel is stable up to 49.6 ºC and the ethanol biodiesel is stable up to 53.7 ºC in air. The methyl esters blends were thermally stable up to 83.2 and 56.8 ºC, for 90:10 and 50:50 blends (soybean:babassu), respectively. The ethyl ester blends presented values of temperature ranges somewhat higher than the methyl esters, such as 85.2 and 64.5 ºC for 90:10 and 50:50 blends, respectively. The esters from babassu oil have satisfactory performance at low temperatures with respect to the point of crystallization, which were below –9.8 ºC for ethylic esters and –8.5 ºC for methylic esters. A good correlation between the crystallization onset temperature and the increase in the concentration of the babassu oil esters was obtained in the mixtures analyses. In the 50:50 combination (babassu:soybean), the crystallization onset temperature were –6.73 and –9.12 ºC for methyl and ethyl esters, respectively.

ABSTRACT Morus nigra L. (Moraceae) is a tree known as black mulberry and the leaves are used in folk medicine in the treatment of diabetes, high cholesterol and menopause symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the M. nigra leaves phytochemical profile in different extractions and the hypolipidemic effect of the infusion comparing to the fenofibrate. Morus nigra infusion (MN) showed higher amounts of phenolics and flavonoids (83.85 mg/g and 79.96 µg/g, respectively), as well as antioxidant activity (83.85%) than decoction or hydromethanolic extracts. Although, decoction showed the best result for ascorbic acid (4.35 mg/100 g) than hydromethanolic or infusion (2.51 or 2.13 mg/100 g, respectively). The phenolic acids gallic, chlorogenic and caffeic and the flavonoids quercetin, rutin and catechin were found in the M. nigra extracts. Hyperlipidemic rats treated with 100, 200 or 400 mg/kg of MN decreased serum cholesterol, triglycerides and normalized lipoproteins. Furthermore, MN inhibited lipid peroxidation in liver, kidney and brain of hyperlipidemic rats. This study provides evidence that M. nigra leaves extracts are rich in polyphenols, mainly chlorogenic acid, which normalized hyperlipidemic disturbance. The results suggest a potential therapeutic effect of the M. nigra leaves infusion on dislipidemic condition and related oxidative stress.

In this study, lipase from Candida antarctica B (Lipozyme CaLB-L) was successfully immobilized on SiO2 through adsorption and used to obtain (R)-(+)-esters derived from (R,S)-1-phenylethanol. The new immobilized enzyme was compared with commercially immobilized lipases (Novozyme 435, Lipozyme 435 and Pseudomonas cepacia (PSC-II and PSD-I)). Lipozyme CaLB-L adsorbed onto SiO2 was found to be a good catalyst and, under optimal conditions, esters could be obtained with conversion 44%, enantiomeric excess of product (eep) > 99%, enantiomeric excess of substract (ees) 77% and enantiomeric ratio (E) > 200. The lipase maintained enantioselectivity under adverse conditions, such as in organic solvents, with an excess of substrate and at different temperatures. The immobilized lipase could be reused five times with no significant loss of the activity.

Bio-oil is classified as second-generation biofuel and it is produced mainly through the pyrolysis of a waste lignocellulosic biomass base. The application of this product is still very limited, due to some of its chemical characteristics. This paper presents a proposal for the reduction of the acidity of bio-oil obtained from waste fish oil, previously produced and characterized as described in the literature, applying the reactive distillation process. This process is primarily based on the conversion of carboxylic acids into their corresponding esters by adding a widely available alcohol and a simple and cheap catalyst in the process for the fractional distillation of crude bio-oil to obtain light and heavy bio-oil, that is, fractions which are equivalent to the fossil fuels gasoline and diesel, respectively. The alcohols tested were methanol and ethanol and the catalysts were H2SO4, H3PO4, NaOH and Na2CO3, in proportions of 10 and 0.5 wt.%, respectively. The light bio-oil was obtained within a temperature range of 42 to 198 ºC with yields of 27.0 to 43.1% and the heavy bio-oil was recovered at 93 to 230 ºC with yields of 42.6 to 49.2%. The greatest acidity reduction was observed employing methanol+H2SO4 (95% and 43% for light and heavy bio-oils, respectively). The fractions produced were characterized by gas cromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography with flame ionization detector (GC-FID), applying the compound classification process PIONA (Paraffins, Iso-paraffins, Olefins, Naphtenes and Aromatics), revealing a homologous series of 1-alkenes and n-alkanes along with some aromatic compounds. The 1H and 13C NMR analysis showed that the process had no significant influence in relation to the carbons and hydrogens associated with the methyl, methylene, methyne and olefinic groups.