An improved enzymatic method for the preparation of (R)-phenylacetyl carbinol

Abstract

(R)-Phenylacetyl carbinol (R-PAC) is one of the key chiral α-hydroxyketones utilized as a synthon in the synthesis of a number of pharmaceuticals having α- and β-adrenergic properties. An improved procedure for the preparation of the compound using the glutathione S-transferase-tag fused catalytic subunit of Escherichia coli acetohydroxyacid synthase I as a catalyst was established in this study. The results showed that under the optimized conditions the target molecule was able to be obtained with an isolated yield of 80.6% and an ee value of higher than 98%. This method could not only ease the preparation of R-PAC, but promote the synthetic applications of E. coli AHAS I as well.