Preparation of enantiopure (R)-flurbiprofen catalyzed by a newly isolatedBacillus cereusC71

Abstract

A new strain that produced a lipase capable of enantioselectively hydrolyzing the ethyl ester of (R )-flurbiprofen was isolated from soil samples and identified as Bacillus cereus C71. The optimal temperature and pH for the hydrolysis reaction with resting cells were 358C and 8.0, respectively. The surfactant Tween-40 enhanced the reaction rate and enantioselectivity. A small-scale production of (R )-flurbiprofen was conducted with 10 mmol L (1 substrate solution under the optimum conditions. After 36 h of reaction, 50% of the initial flurbiprofen ethyl ester was hydrolyzed to (R )-flurbiprofen with an enantiomeric excess (ee p ) of 96%, and an enantiomeric ratio (E ) of /100. The cells could be reused and retained 60% of initial activity after recycling for six times.

Optimization of the mobile phase composition for preparative chiral separation of flurbiprofen enantiomers

“…A similar mobile phase composition (95/5/1) was used by Booth and collaborators, using the same stationary phase [15]. At a preparative scale, some examples can be found on both the enzymatic resolution of R-Flurbiprofen [16][17][18] and S-Flurbiprofen [19][20][21] enantiomers. However, as far as our knowledge, there are no published studies related to the preparative separation of flurbiprofen enantiomers by liquid chromatography.…”