A joint research group between Osaka University and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has succeeded in creating the world's first catalytic process for chemically synthesizing bioavailable sugars.
Sugars such as glucose and fructose are extremely important as substances that support the activities of all living things, including humans, and as substrates in bioproduction technology for chemicals and the like.However, the conventional general sugar production process involves photosynthesis using water and CO2 as raw materials, which means that it is produced through agriculture, which requires a lot of water, nutrients (phosphorous, nitrogen, etc.), and large areas of land. With the recent increase in food demand and the expansion of biomass utilization technology, there are concerns about the sustainability of the food supply.
On the other hand, regarding the chemical synthesis of sugars, there was a time when interest was focused on the "formose reaction," which produces monosaccharides from formaldehyde under basic conditions, but due to problems such as side reactions, the principle was to improve the yield of sugars. It is said that this was something that could not be expected.
Under these circumstances, this research group has searched for a method to proceed the formose reaction under neutral conditions that can suppress side reactions. It was discovered that it functions as a sugar production catalyst.The catalytic process using metal oxoacid salts as a catalyst material under neutral conditions greatly improves sugar production efficiency through the suppression of side reactions, and is at least several hundred times faster than photosynthesis. It also requires almost no nutritional salts.
In addition, it was shown that chemically synthesized sugars can be eaten by microorganisms, even though they do not exist in nature, meaning that they are edible sugars for living things and can also be used as raw materials for bioproduction.
In the future, it is expected that this technology will lead to a future society in which bio-available sugars can be obtained ``anytime, anywhere, and at high speed,'' and we believe that this technology will contribute to the further expansion of bioproduction technology. It will be done.
Paper information:【Chemical Science】Construction of an autocatalytic reaction cycle in neutral medium for synthesis of life-sustaining sugars
