Regiospecific Acetylation of Substituted α,α′‐Benzylidenedimethanols with Vinyl Acetate using Porcine Pancreas Lipase

Abstract

Acetylation of substituted α,α′‐benzylidenedimethanols with 10 equivalents of vinyl acetate in the presence of 50 w/w% of porcine pancreas lipase (PPL) type II regiospecifically proceeded to afford only the corresponding E‐monoacetates in excellent yields without Z‐monoacetates, diacetate, or the starting materials.

Keywords:

• acylation
• diol
• enzyme
• lipase
• regioselectivity

Acknowledgment

This work was supported in part by Ajinomoto Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan, and Grants‐in‐Aid for Scientific Research (C) (No. 18590014) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This work was performed through the Scientific Research Project by CIS (Chiba Institute of Science).