A Novel Enzymatic Approach to the Synthesis of Chiral Sulfoxides: Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Prochiral Sulfinyldicarboxylates

Abstract

Methoxycarbonylmethyl carboxymethyl sulfoxide 3 and 2-acetoxyethyl 2-hydroxyethyl sulfoxide 4 have been obtained in high enantiomeric purity by the enzyme-mediated hydrolysis of the corresponding prochiral sulfinyldicarboxylates 1 and 2. The R configuration has been assigned to the enantiomerically pure (-)-3, [α]D 20 -20, by X-ray analysis.