Cyanohydrin Enzymatic reaction

Griengl, H., Hickel, A., Johnson, D.V., Kratky, C., Schntidt, M. and Schwab, H. (1997) Enzymatic cleavage and formation of cyanohydrins a reaction of biological and synthetic relevance. Chem. Commun., 1997,1933-1940. 

Willeman et al. [26] modeled the enzyme-catalyzed cyanohydrin synthesis in a stirred batch tank reactor. Assumption of a mass transfer limitation (Figure 9.3b) is made, which results in a low concentration of substrate in the aqueous phase, thus suppressing the non-enzymatic reaction. In a well-stirred biphasic system the enzyme concentration was varied, keeping the phase ratio constant A maximum rate of conversion is reached at the concentration where mass transfer of the substrate becomes limiting. Further increase of enzyme concentration does not enhance the reaction rate [27]. The different results achieved by the two groups are explained by the different process strategies. No mass transfer limitation could be detected by Hickel et al. because the stirring rate in the aqueous phase was not varied [26]. 

The nitrilase mediated DKR route to enantiomerically pure 2-hydroxycarboxylic acids is restricted to the (R)-enantiomers because, to our knowledge, no (S)-selec-tive nitrilases for cyanohydrin substrates are commonly available [11]. We reasoned that a fully enzymatic route to the (S)-acids should be possible by combining an (S)-selective oxynitrilase (hydroxynitrile lyase, EC 4.1.2.10, (S)-hydroxynitrile lyase) and a non-selective nitrilase in a bienzymatic cascade (see Figure 16.3). Besides being more environmentally acceptable than chemical hydrolysis, the mild reaction conditions of the combined enzymatic reaction would be compatible with a wide range of hydrolysable groups. 

The pH value has an influence not only on the activity of enzymes but also on chemical reactions. The chemical cyanohydrin reaction is base-catalysed, as, compared to HCN, the cyanide ion more easily attacks the carbonyl group. As a result, a distinct decrease of the reaction rate for the non-enzymatic synthesis of mandeloni-trile occurs at lower pH values. Also, the enzyme activity decreases but not to the same extent therefore, the enantioselective enzymatic reaction becomes dominant at lower pH (see Fig. 7-11). 

In the case of the enzymatic synthesis of cyanohydrins, enantioselectivity is the most important criterion. Investigation of the kinetics of the whole system (enzymatic and non-enzymatic reaction) offers the possibility to optimize reaction conditions to... 

In conjunction with the establishment of the cyanohydrin DCL, the DCR process was subsequently addressed. Thus, selected lipases and a suitable acyl donor [isopropenyl acetate (34)] were applied to the system (Scheme 6.7). This selective enzymatic resolution of the DCL provided cyanoacetate product (35) as the major product at the reaction conditions used, thus demonstrating the efficiency of the concept. 

The enzymatic synthesis of chiral cyanohydrins has reached a high stage of development. The different reaction systems give the possibility to convert a great... 

Initial preparative work with oxynitrilases in neutral aqueous solution [517, 518] was hampered by the fact that under these reaction conditions the enzymatic addition has to compete with a spontaneous chemical reaction which limits enantioselectivity. Major improvements in optical purity of cyanohydrins were achieved by conducting the addition under acidic conditions to suppress the uncatalyzed side reaction [519], or by switching to a water immiscible organic solvent as the reaction medium [520], preferably diisopropyl ether. For the latter case, the enzymes are readily immobilized by physical adsorption onto cellulose. A continuous process has been developed for chiral cyanohydrin synthesis using an enzyme membrane reactor [61]. Acetone cyanhydrin can replace the highly toxic hydrocyanic acid as the cyanide source [521], Inexpensive defatted almond meal has been found to be a convenient substitute for the purified (R)-oxynitrilase without sacrificing enantioselectivity [522-524], Similarly, lyophilized and powered Sorghum bicolor shoots have been successfully tested as an alternative source for the purified (S)-oxynitrilase [525],... 

In both reactions cyanide has usually been employed as catalyst [231, 232], Under these conditions, the acyl anion equivalent is represented by the tautomeric form XIX of the cyanohydrin anion which results from addition of cyanide to an aldehyde (Scheme 6.104). In nature, this type of Umpolung is performed enzymatically, with the aid of the cofactor thiamine pyrophosphate 226 (vitamin Bl, Scheme 6.105) [232, 233]. 

Cyanohydrins are versatile building blocks that are used in both the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries [2-9]. Consequently their enantioselective synthesis has attracted considerable attention (Scheme 5.1). Their preparation by the addition of HCN to an aldehyde or a ketone is 100% atom efficient. It is, however, an equilibrium reaction. The racemic addition of HCN is base-catalyzed, thus the enantioselective, enzymatic cyanide addition should be performed under mildly acidic conditions to suppress the undesired background reaction. While the formation of cyanohydrins from aldehydes proceeds readily, the equilibrium for ketones lies on the side of the starting materials. The latter reaction can therefore only be performed successfully by either bio- or chemo-cat-... 

Both linamarin and amygdalin are toxic compounds because they are metabolized to cyanohydrins, which are hydrolyzed to carbonyl compounds and toxic HCN gas. This second step is merely the reconversion of a cyanohydrin to a carbonyl compound, a process that occurs with base in reactions run in the laboratoiy (Section 21.9A). If cassava root is processed with care, linamarin is enzymatically metabolized by this reaction sequence and the toxic HCN is released before the root is ingested, making it safe to eat. 

The first total synthesis of amiclenomycin, an inhibitor of biotin biosynthesis, was completed by A. Marquet and co-workers. In order to prove its structure unambiguously, both the cis and trans isomers were prepared. The L-amino acid functionality was installed by a Strecker reaction using TMSCN in the presence of catalytic amounts of Znla. The resulting O-TMS protected cyanohydrin was exposed to saturated methanolic ammonia solution, which gave rise to the corresponding a-amino nitrile. Enzymatic hydrolysis with immobilized pronase afforded the desired L-amino acid. 

Other possibilities to prepare chiral cyanohydrins are the enzyme catalysed kinetic resolution of racemic cyanohydrins or cyanohydrin esters [107 and references therein], the stereospecific enzymatic esterification with vinyl acetate [108-111] (Scheme 2) and transesterification reactions with long chain alcohols [107,112]. Many reports describe the use of fipases in this area. Although the action of whole microorganisms in cyanohydrin resolution has been described [110-116],better results can be obtained by the use of isolated enzymes. Lipases from Pseudomonas sp. [107,117-119], Bacillus coagulans [110, 111], Candida cylindracea [112,119,120] as well as lipase AY [120], Lipase PS [120] and the mammalian porcine pancreatic lipase [112, 120] are known to catalyse such resolution reactions. 

A suitable catalyst for the synthesis of (R)-cyanohydrins is the enzyme (R)-oxynitrilase from bitter almonds. It catalyzes exclusively si-face addition of hydrogen cyanide to benzaldehyde or other aldehydes. A competing non-enzymatic parallel reaction lowers the enantiomeric excess of the product155, 56]. 

About 3000 plant species are known to release HCN from their tissues, a process which is known as cyanogenesis[17, 181. Storage compounds are cyanohydrins where the hydroxy function is glycosylated to a carbohydrate or protected as a fatty acid ester. The plant defence mechanism in the case of sugar compounds is a two-step reaction. Initially a glycosidase liberates the cyanohydrin moiety, which is cleaved either spontaneously by base catalysis or enzymatically by the action of oxynitrilases to release the corresponding carbonyl compound and HCN1191. 

The addition reaction of carbon-11 labelled cyanide ion to the bisulphite addition adduct of an aldehyde has been extended to prepare carbon-11 labelled amines. Maeda and coworkers prepared both p- and m-octopamine [2-(p-and m-hydroxyphenyl)-2-hydroxyethyl-amine] from the corresponding benzaldehyde by reducing the cyanohydrin formed in the reaction between the appropriate benzaldehyde and cyanide ion both under enzymatic conditions and by the basic modification of the Bucherer-Strecker synthesis, with borane-THF. The synthesis of / -octopamine is presented in equation 64. 

The chemoenzymatic synthesis of (13S)-hydroxy-18 2(9Z,ll ) was achieved in nine steps starting from (2 )-octenal. Of importance was the enzymatic conversion of (2 )-octenal to the (5)-cyanohydrin [5] with (S)-hydroxynitrile lyase cloned from Hevea brasiliensis (41). 13- Hydroxy-lO-oxo-18 1(11 ) was synthesized via a Kno-evenagel-type reaction of Isopropyl 11 - phenylsulfinyl-10-oxoundecanoate with hep-tanal to form y-hydroxyenone functionality together with carbon chain elongation (42). The regiospecific oxidation of a number of substituted unsaturated fatty esters with /7-benzoquinone in the presence of palladium(II) chloride under concomitant ultrasonic irradiation was reported. For example, methyl 9-hydroxy-18 1 (12Z) furnished methyl 9-hydroxy-12-keto-18 0 exclusively (43). 

A fascinating variant of the enzymatic cyanohydrin formation consists in the use of nitroalkanes (as nonnatural nucleophiles) instead of cyanide (Scheme 2.209) [1568,1569]. Overall, this constitutes a biocatalytic equivalent to the Henry-reaction producing vicinal nitro-alcohols, which are valuable precursors for amino alcohols. Using (5)-HNL, the asymmetric addition of nitromethane to benzaldehyde gave the nitroalcohol in 92% e.e., while for p-nitrobenzaldehyde the stereoselectivity dropped sharply. With nitroethane, two stereocenters are created Whereas the stereoselectivity for the alcoholic center was high (e.e. 95%), the recognition for the adjacent center bearing the nitro moiety was modest and other (dia)stereomers were formed in up to 8%. 

Effenberger EX (1992) (R)- and (5)-cyanohydrins - their enzymatic synthesis and their reactions. In Servi S (ed) Microbial Reagents in Organic Synthesis. Kluwer, Dordrecht, p 25... 

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