Removal of O-and N-benzyl groups by fungal biotransformation

✍ Scribed by Herbert L. Holland; Morgan Conn; P.Chinna Chenchaiah; Frances M. Brown

• Book ID: 104217796
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 141 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0040-4039
• DOI: 10.1016/s0040-4039(00)82354-0

✦ Synopsis

Summarv: Biotransformation by resting cultures of the aerobic fungi Mortierella isabellina NRRL 1757 and Helminthosnorium species NRRL 4761 can be used as method for the removal of 0-and N-benzyl groups, respectively, under neutral, room temperature conditions.

Fungal biotransformation has been developed as a useful synthetic route for asymmetric sulfur oxidation,1 hydroxylation at unactivated carbon? and ester and amide hydrolysis.2 We have previously used the ability of resting cultures of Mortierella isabellina NRRL 1757 to oxidise sulfur in the production of a range of chiral alkyl aryl sulfoxides3 (Equation l), and later showed that the same fungus was able to hydroxylate a benzylic methylene group to produce chiral 1-phenylethanols.4