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Updated: Oct 20, 2025

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine
Published on: February 16, 2018
Chemoenzymatic Asymmetric Synthesis of Pyridine-Based α-Fluorinated Secondary Alcohols
Timo Broese1,2, Peter Ehlers3, Peter Langer3
1Institute of Chemistry, Biocatalytic Synthesis Group, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Str. 3 A, 18059, Rostock, Germany.
Abstract:
Fluoro-substituted and heteroaromatic compounds are valuable intermediates for a variety of applications in pharma- and agrochemistry and synthetic chemistry. This study investigates the chemoenzymatic preparation of chiral alcohols bearing a heteroaromatic ring with an increasing degree of fluorination in α-position. Starting from readily available picoline derivatives prochiral α-halogenated acyl moieties were introduced with excellent selectivity and 64-95 % yield. The formed carbonyl group was subsequently reduced to the corresponding alcohols using the alcohol dehydrogenase from Lactobacillus kefir, yielding an enantiomeric excess of 95->99 % and up to 98 % yield.
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