• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.167-179
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• 2005

Chiral epoxides are highly valuable intermediates, used for the synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs and agrochemicals. They have broad scope of market demand because of their applications. A major challenge in modern organic chemistry is to generate such compounds in high yields, with high stereo- and regio-selectivities. Epoxide hydrolases (EH) are promising biocatalysts for the preparation of chiral epoxides and vicinal diols. They exhibit high enantioselectivity for their substrates, and can be effectively used in the resolution of racemic epoxides through enantioselective hydrolysis. The selective hydrolysis of a racemic epoxide can produce both the corresponding diols and the unreacted epoxides with high enantiomeric excess (ee) value. The potential of microbial EH to produce chiral epoxides and vicinal diol has prompted researchers to explore their use in the synthesis of epoxides and diols with high ee values.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.5 s.72
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• pp.772-778
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• 2005

Chiral epoxides are important chiral synthons in organic synthesis for the production of chiral pharmaceuticals and functional food additives. Chiral epoxides can be synthesized by enantioselective introduction of oxygen to double bond of substrate by monooxygenase. Peroxidase also carry out asymmetric epoxidation of alkene in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. Kinetic resolution of racemic epoxides via enantioselective hydrolysis reaction by epoxide hydrolase (EH) is a very promising method since chiral epoxides with a high optical purity can be obtained from cheap and readily available racemic epoxides. In this review, various biocatalytic approaches for the production of chiral epoxides with several examples are presented and their commercial potential is discussed.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.291-296
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• 1999

Chiral epoxides are key intermediates for the production of chiral pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and functional food additives. Chiral epoxides can be produced by either chemical or biological method. In biocatalytic production routes, chiral epoxides can be produced via epoxidations of prochiral alkenes by monooxygenase or peroxidase. Kinetic resolution of racemic epoxides using whole cells of bacteria or fungi might be commercially useful, since it is possible to obtain chiral epoxides with high optical purities from relatively cheap and readily avaiable racemic epoxides. Some bioprocesses already are commercially developed: the biocatalytic production of chiral epichlorohydrin via microbial stereospecific dehalogenation, and lipase-catalyzed enantioselective hydrolysis in a hollow fiber membrane bioreactor for the production of chiral methyl trans-3-(4-methoxyphenyl)glycidate. the intermediate for calcium antagonist diltiazem. The importance of biocatalytic production of chiral epoxides with several examples from literature are presented.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 2012

A newly-devised Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) reagents, such as diisobutylacetoxyalanes and diisobutylmethanesulfonylalanes, achieved a clean conversion of unsymmetrical epoxides to the corresponding less substituted alcohols. This review covers the recent developments for such a regiospecific ring-opening reaction of epoxides.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.856-860
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• 1997

The arene epoxides from naphthalene, 1β,2α-dihydroxy-3α,4α-epoxy- (1) and 1β,2α-dihydroxy-3β,4β-epoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene (2) (anti- and syn-diol epoxide), 1,2-epoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene (3), and 1,2-epoxy-l,2-dihydronaphthalene (4), are model compounds of the ultimate carcinogenic metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, ubiquitous environmental pollutants which may be causal in several human cancers. The product distribution in the hydrolysis of 1-4 have been studied by HPLC analysis of reaction mixtures. The yields of the trans product from the hydronium-ion-catalyzed and pH-independent hydrolysis in 9 : 1 (v/v) 20 mM buffer-dioxane at 25 ℃, respectively, were; 1: 98, 100; 2: 74, 87, 3: 95, 97, 4:100, 100. The results were rationalized by conformational equilibria of the epoxides and the carbocationic and zwitterionic intermediates from the epoxides.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.2135-2136
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• 2010

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.2823-2824
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• 2009

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1185-1186
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• 2002

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.1023-1025
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• 2003

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.3075-3078
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• 2009