Production of Antioxidants From Carnitines
Carnitines are nutraceuticals with indications in treating a variety of mental health disorders. A metabolomics-guided bioprocess method is presented to produce longer chain fatty acid esters of carnitines such as polyunsaturated fatty acid esters. Bioprocess engineering approaches have been applied to germinating sunflower seeds to produce compounds such as carnitine and acetyl-L-carnitine that germinating sunflower seeds would ordinarily not produce in detectable amounts. The same approaches can be used for the production in germinating sunflower seeds longer chain fatty acid esters of carnitine. The production of these polyunsaturated fatty acid carnitine esters would provide a nutritional source for these powerful antioxidants. The carnitine esters of these powerful antioxidants could then be transported across the inner mitochondrial membrane to the electron transport chain which is the major site of free radical production in the body. The delivery of these powerful antioxidants via carnitine esterification to the major site of free radical generation could have therapeutic potential.