An Enzymatic and Environmentally Friendly Route for the Synthesis of Chiral beta-Hydroxy Ketones

The present study deals with the biocatalytic enantioselective synthesis of chiral beta-hydroxy ketones. For the first time, we report that among many enzymes, the lipase AL-AN (Amano Lipase A from Aspergillus niger) catalyzed the enzymatic hydrolysis of racemic 1,3-keto acetates in aqueous media. Optimum reaction conditions were determined by changing the enzyme, solvent, temperature, pH and amounts of enzymes. After AL-AN was determined to be the best enzyme in this study, we examined fifteen substrates with different structures in this reaction and obtained chiral beta-hydroxy ketones with good yield, high enantioselectivity and S configuration. This study presents an environmentally friendly and green method for the synthesis of (S)-beta-hydroxy ketones.