Reichstein, Howarth and vitamin

Currie pioneered the fermentation process for the production of citric acid. An interesting contemporary review of this work documents its scale and its promising future (Chapman, 1921). 

By 1930, biocatalysis was also integrated into multistep chemical syntheses. The manufacture of o-ephedrine was based on Neuberg s demonstration that yeast would convert benzaldehyde to phenylacetyl-carbinol [(R)-l-phenyl-l-hydroxypropan-2-one (11)] (Neuberg and Ohle, 1922). Of particular interest, because of its relation with the work of Brown and Bertrand, is the synthesis of vitamin C [L-ascorbic acid (12)]. Two 

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