Vegetables as Chemical Reagents

Abstract

Biocatalysis is an important adjunct to the chemical armamentarium that organic chemists may bring to bear for the synthesis of important intermediates and finished pharmaceutical and other commercial products. For most of the world however, such catalytic reagents are not an option due to their high cost and import limitations. Recent studies indicate that the use of locally available vegetables may offer an alternative opportunity for countries to investigate their local resources for the effective conduct of key synthetic transformations with significant economic and ecological implications. This review offers a brief overview of the field of microbial and plant biocatalysts, discusses the studies thus far on the use of intact plant materials for conducting synthetic chemical reactions, and considers some opportunities for future development.

Sustainable drugs and global health care

“…56 It is now well-established that carrots (Daucus carota), manihot (Manihot escuela and Manihot dulcis), and coconut juice (Cocos nucifera) can perform a number of significant organic chemical transformations, including the reduction of ketones and aldehydes, the reduction of double bonds, and various esterification and hydrolysis reactions. As appropriate, these reactions typically occur with high (95-99%) stereospecificity.…”

“…These vegetable-based, enzymatic reactions can be repeated many times over (6-7 times) without loss of system reactivity, and have minimum energy requirements (room temperature for 3 days). As indicated, 56 this area of chemistry has a very high potential for future development in less-developed countries around the world where the range of potential reagents (such as vegetables or other commercial plants) is high, and where facilities for product determination may be limited. Long term, incorporation of these reactions into synthetic sequences for drug manufacture may make the delivery of cheaper, semisynthetic products through local production a viable alternative to costly importation.…”

Production of chiral alcohols from prochiral ketones by microalgal photo-biocatalytic asymmetric reduction reaction

“…The asymmetric reduction reaction by biocatalysis, especially by whole-cell biocatalysis, has many advantages such as outstanding enantioselectivity, mild reaction conditions and environmental friendliness, and regeneration of cofactor [i.e., nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, NAD(P)H] in situ in whole cells [16,22,25,28]. So far, bacteria, fungi, and plant tissues have been extensively researched as biocatalysts [3,6,11,16,22,29,34], and many excellent bioreaction processes have been developed. In our previous work, we devoted our efforts to explore the asymmetric reduction of aromatic ketone and b-ketoesters by yeast and plant tissues [31,34], and we also developed bioreduction processes by introducing resin adsorption and ionic liquid or organic two-phase systems [30,32,33,35].…”

Bioacetilação de álcoois catalisada por Saccharum officinarum

“…Diversas técnicas de imobilização de enzimas foram desenvolvidas com a finalidade de fornecer estabilidade, facilitar a recuperação e possibilitar a reutilização desses catalisadores. 5 A aplicação de enzimas ou complexos enzimáticos imobilizados 6 cresceu bastante nos últimos anos com a utilização pelas indústrias de medicamentos, detergentes, couros e panificação em seus processos. 7,8 O presente trabalho pesquisou o uso do caldo da cana-de-açúcar [Saccharum officinarum, (Poaceae)], planta facilmente cultivável e abundante no Brasil, 9,10 como fonte de enzimas (sistema imobilizado) para biotransformações em reações de esterificação.…”