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Enzymes in organic synthesis, 21. Lipase-catalyzed conversion of (±)-2-methylglutaric anhydride into (S)-2-methyl- and (R)-4-methyl-δ-valerolactone via a regio- and enantioselective sequential esterification

✍ Scribed by Ozegowski, Rüdiger ;Kunath, Annamarie ;Schick, Hans


Publisher
John Wiley and Sons
Year
1994
Tongue
English
Weight
500 KB
Volume
1994
Category
Article
ISSN
0947-3440

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✦ Synopsis


Abstract

The enzyme‐catalyzed sequential esterification of (±)‐2‐methylpentanedioic anhydride (rac‐1) with 2‐methylpropanol in diethyl ether afforded a 1:1 mixture of 1‐(2‐methylpropyl) 5‐hydrogen (S)‐4‐methylpentanedioate (ent‐2) with an enantiomeric excess of 88% and 1‐(2‐methylpropyl) 5‐hydrogen (R)‐2‐methylpentanedioate (3) with an e.e. of 99% besides a considerable amount of the diester ent‐4. Exploiting the ability of the enzymes Novozym and SP 382 to differentiate between the two enantiomers and to catalyze the alcoholysis of both enantiomers with opposite regioselectivity, we reduced the resolution of rac‐1 to a simple chromatographic separation of enantiomerically enriched regioisomeric monoesters. The high optical purity of monoester 3 could be achieved due to the fast conversion of its enantiomer into the diester ent‐4. Via reduction with lithium borohydride the monoesters ent‐2 and 3 were converted into the corresponding δ‐valerolactones ent‐5 and 6.