Two-step Biocatalytic Resolution of rac-Primary Alcohol for Obtaining Each Isomeric Intermediate of Xanthorrhizol

摘要

From many kinds of natural products, interesting compounds have been extracted for human health and exhibited various biological activities, such as anticancer, antifungal, antioxidant, etc. They have been used as either raw mixtures or modified single ingredients for increased effectiveness. In addition, natural products have been used as lead compounds for new drug discovery programs. Phenolic sesquiterpene compounds have attracted much interest for their broad biological activities. Among them, xanthorrhizol has been investigated in the search for new biological activities. It was first isolated by Kochendoerfer4 from rhizomes of Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb. and exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activities. It has one chiral center, thus (R)- and (S)-isomer can be generated as in Figure 1.