Monoterpenes are secondary metabolites widely used in the flavors and fragrance industries and can have their structure altered to enhance their applicability, such as producing epoxides, which are used as synthetic blocks for pharmaceuticals. Epoxides are commonly synthesized by the use of inorganic acids as catalysts, although the acid medium induces epoxide degradation. To overcome these limitations biocatalysis is shown as an alternative, in view that lipases can perform the reaction in a non-acidic medium. Related to, this work aimed to perform the synthesis of beta-Pinene epoxide using Pseudozyma antarctica lipase B (Novozym®435) as biocatalyst and to determine the independent variables that influence the reaction using experimental design tools. Different solvent systems were evaluated for until 72 h, in reactions with molar ratio of 2:2:1 (beta-Pinene, octanoic acid, and urea-hydrogen peroxide - UHP) at 40°C, 250 rpm, and 10%(w/v) of the biocatalyst. Ethyl acetate showed higher conversion (40% in 24 h) into the product without the formation of by-products. The atom economy (AE) was determined using metrics of green chemistry and ethyl acetate proved to have a higher atom economy (67.8%), while the other solvents that used octanoic acid as an acyl donor had 41.3%. In the following reactions, ethyl acetate was maintained as the solvent, while the temperature, molar ratio, and the percentage of the biocatalyst were varied. The increase in the molar ratio (beta-Pinene:UHP, 1:1) and percentage of biocatalyst (20%w/v) resulted in 80% of the product after 3 hof reaction at 40°C. To evaluate the impact of each independent variable, an FFD was performed by varying temperature, molar ratio, stirring, and percentage of enzyme, in one level. All variables were statistically significant, with different rates of impact. Due to this, the same variables were maintained on the CCRD, varying in two levels. The conversion ranged from good to excellent (32 - 93%). The independent variables that influenced the direction were temperature > stirring > molar ratio. In conclusion, the combination of two different tools of experimental design provided the development of an optimized model for beta-Pinene epoxidation, achieving high yields within 3 h.
