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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine
Published on: February 16, 2018
Enzymatic synthesis of 3'-hydroxyacetaminophen catalyzed by tyrosinase
Edelmira Valero1, M Isabel Lozano, Ramón Varón
1GMB: Grupo de Modelización en Bioquímica, Departamento de Química-Física, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario, E-02071-Albacete, Spain. edelmira.valero@uclm.es
Abstract:
3'-Hydroxyacetaminophen, a catechol metabolite of N-acetyl-p-aminophenol (acetaminophen) and N-acetyl-m-aminophenol (a structural analogue of acetaminophen and considered as a possible alternative because it is not hepatotoxic), is enzymatically synthesized for the first time using mushroom tyrosinase. Although reported to be weakly hepatotoxic in vivo, this catechol derivative of acetaminophen is not commercially available. This compound was obtained from its monophenolic precursor, acetaminophen, using the enzyme tyrosinase in the presence of an excess of ascorbic acid, thus reducing back the o-quinone product of catalytic activity to the catechol acetaminophen derivative. A mathematical model of the system is proposed, which is also applicable to the tyrosinase-mediated synthesis of any o-diphenolic compound from its corresponding monophenol. This synthesis procedure is continuous, easy to perform and control, and adaptable to a bioreactor with the immobilized enzyme for industrial purposes in a nonpolluting way.
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