Butyl caprate

Kobayashi, Takashi, et al. Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic 24 (2003): 61-66.

The equilibrium constant for the formation of fatty acid butyl esters by lipase-catalyzed condensation was studied. The equilibrium constant for the synthesis of butyl caprate was studied to be independent of the alkyl chain length of the nitrile or alcohol but significantly dependent on the type of solvent polar group. The constant in a mixture of nitrile and tertiary alcohol increased with increasing mole fraction of nitrile in the mixture. The infrared spectra of the C=O bond of decanoic acid and butyl caprate were measured in various solvents. The results showed that the interaction between decanoic acid and tertiary butyl alcohol was stronger than that between butyl caprate and alcohol.
The infrared spectra of decanoic acid and butyl caprate in different ratios dissolved in nitrile, tertiary alcohol or a mixture of acetonitrile and tertiary butyl alcohol were measured by the ATR method using an FTIR spectrometer. The concentrations of both decanoic acid and butyl caprate were fixed at 100 mmol/l.

Lyon, Hans, et al. Histochemistry and cell biology 103 (1995): 263-269.

The study of compounds with minimal toxicity and inflammatory properties to replace harmful compounds for tissue processing and dewaxing without compromising the morphology, staining properties or diagnostic value of tissue sections. All aromatic compounds and aliphatic hydrocarbons were rejected, mainly because of their high vapor pressure. In a large-scale test of these compounds, butyl caprate came closest to being an ideal substitute for aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons in the histology department: the quality of sections is at least equal to that obtained with xylene. For dewaxing, it can be used at 30-35°C. Butyl caprate is not suitable as a premounting agent. In practice, this is not a problem, since modern mounting media allow mounting directly from ethanol without compromising the appearance of the sections in the microscope.
Material representing adipose tissue, i.e. richly vascularized or bleeding tissue, was used. All materials were standardly fixed in 4% neutral buffered formaldehyde. Ethyl hexyl caprate, ethyl caprate, ethyl caprate and butyl caprate were tested using the following vacuum infiltration tissue dehydrators and compared with xylene. For each test, no less than 200 tissue blocks were processed.