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