Sugar fatty acid ester surfactants: Biodegradation pathways

Abstract

In previous work, we found that the presence of a sulfonyl or alkyl group adjacent to the ester bond of sugar ester surfactants is associated with a dramatic reduction in the rate of biodegradation relative to that of unsubstituted esters. In this study, we investigated the pathways followed during the biodegradation of sucrose laurate, sucrose α-sulfonyl laurate, and sucrose α-ethyl laurate to determine the reasons for their different biodegradation rates. Through the use of high performance liquid chromatography and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, the nature of the intermediates formed during the biodegradation of these three key sugar esters was determined. It was found th..