Study On The Synthesis And Industrialization Of Arbutin

Hydroquinone O-D-glucopyranoside,also known as arbutin,can inhibit tyrosinase activity,and prevent the formation of melanin,thus reducing the deposition of melanin in the skin,and removing spots and freckles.Arbutin also has bactericidal and anti-inflammatory effects.It is mainly used for the preparation of high-grade cosmetics,and has good development prospects.On the basis of literature investigation,a synthesis route of beta arbutin suitable for industrialization was determined:penta-acetyl glucopyranose was obtained with anhydrous glucose as the starting material and acetic anhydride as an acylating reagent for acetylation of hydroxyl group,penta-acetyl glucopyranose was glucosylated with hydroquinone with the catalysis of BF₃·Et₂O to give tetra-acetyl arbutin;After phenol hydroxyl group of tetraacetyl arbutin was protected through acetic anhydride,it was hydrolyzed to?-arbutin by sodium methoxide in methanol.The crude?-arbutin was recrystallized with ethyl acetate containing water,The HPLC purity of final?-arbutin was 99.6%.The synthetic process was optimized.After the process optimization,the yields of acetylation,glucosidylation reacetylation and hydrolysis reaction were 85%,75%and 90%,respectively,and the total yield was57%.According to the production of the enterprise and market demand condition,the production process scheme of 50 t/y of arbutin was designed based on the optimized process parameters.The process flow chart and the workshop layout were also determined.The economic feasibility of the synthetic process was evaluated,which provided a good theoretical guidance for the industrialization and further optimization of arbutin.