Whole seeds of Bauhinia variegata L. (Fabaceae) as an efficient biocatalyst for benzyl alcohol preparations from benzaldehydes

Abstract

Whole seeds of Bauhinia variegata L. (Fabaceae) were utilized as a biological reducer to transform benzaldehyde into benzyl alcohol. The effects of some variables such as temperature, the load of substrate and co-solvent, were established to optimize the reductive process. Utilizing the optimal reaction conditions, a laboratory-scale reaction (final concentration of the substrate: 21.2 mM) was performed to obtain benzyl alcohol (conversion: 95%; isolated yield: 49%; productivity: 1.11 g L⁻¹ or 0.046 g L⁻¹h⁻¹ of benzyl alcohol). In addition, using these optimal conditions, fourteen substituted benzaldehydes were reduced, with a conversion achieved to their corresponding benzyl alcohols ranging from 62% to >99% (isolated yields from 7% to 70%). Moreover, useful building blocks by the synthesis of the drugs and important commercial products were also obtained. The scope, limitations and advantages of this new biocatalytic synthetic method are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Seeds
• biocatalysis
• Bauhinia variegata L.
• benzaldehydes
• benzyl alcohols

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Dr. Paul Hobson, a native speaker, for the revision of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). Laura I. Rossi is a researcher of CONICET.

Additional information

Funding

The present work was financially supported by Secretaría de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (SeCyT-UNC) [33620180100619CB] and Universidad Católica de Córdoba.