Synthesis of the antioxidant hydroxytyrosol using tyrosinase as biocatalyst

7 pages, 6 figures.Hydroxytyrosol (HTyr), a natural ortho-diphenolic antioxidant with health-beneficial properties that mainly occurs in virgin olive oil and olive oil mill waste waters (also known as vegetative waters), has been enzymatically synthesized using mushroom tyrosinase. This o-diphenol (not commercially available) was obtained from its monophenolic precursor tyrosol (commercially available) in the presence of both tyrosinase and ascorbic acid. The reaction synthesis is continuous, easy to perform, and adaptable to a bioreactor for industrial purposes. The HTyr concentration is time-predicted, and the yield of reaction can be 100%. The synthesis method reported here is an alternative approach to obtain this compound in an environmentally friendly way.J.C.E. is holder of Marie Curie Contract HPMF-CT-1999-00023 from the European Commission under the framework of the program “Improving the Human Research Potential and the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base. E.C. is holder of a grant from the Movilidad de Investigadores y Tecnólogos program under the action “Mit-Becas; Modalidad F2”. (This work has been partially supported by the project CICYT-AGL-2000-2014).Peer reviewe