Saccharomyces Cerevisiae as a Biocatalyst for Different Carbonyl Group under Green Condition

Abstract

<em>In this research</em><em>saccharomyces cerevisiae</em> (baker's yeast) was used <em>as a cheap, readily accessible, selective, efficient, and green bio-catalyst in a chemo selective reduction of carbonyl group to hydroxyl group. </em>In this green procedure three substrates <em>e.g.</em> (3-(3-nitrophenyl)aziridin-2-yl)-1-phenyl-methanone, pyruvate ester, and 2-acetyl-γ-butyrolactone were reduced to their corresponding reduced compounds in the presence of <em>saccharomyces cerevisiae </em>atambient temperature in aqueous media. It was worthy to note that ketone groups were chemo-selectively reduced, while ester and lactone groups remained unchanged. Moreover, in this procedure, chemo selective bio-reduction of ketone group to hydroxyl group can be performed by coenzyme NADPH in <em>saccharomyces cerevisiae</em> (baker's yeast) which is recyclable in water, as a green solvent, while this recyclization cannot occur in non-aqueous systems. The structure of products was confirmed by IR and ¹H NMR spectra.