Enantiomerically pure amino acids, amino alcohols, amines, alcohols, and epoxides play an increasingly important role as intermediates in the pharmaceutical industry and agrochemistry, where both a high degree of purity and large quantities of the compounds are required. The chemical industry has primarily relied upon established chemical methods for the synthesis of these intermediates, but is now turning more and more to enzymatic and biotechnological fermentation processes. For the industrial implementation of many transformations alternative methods are available. The advantages of the individual methods will be discussed herein and exemplified by syntheses of relevant compounds.

Enantiomerenreine Aminosäuren, Aminoalkohole, Amine, Alkohole und Epoxide spielen heutzutage als Zwischenprodukte in pharmazeutischer Industrie und Agrochemie eine immer größere Rolle. Dabei sind sowohl ein hoher Reinheitsgrad als auch große Mengen der Verbindungen gefragt. Die chemische Industrie hat sich bei der Synthese dieser Zwischenstufen bislang auf bewährte chemische Verfahren gestützt, greift jedoch zunehmend auf enzymatische und fermentative Prozesse aus der Biotechnologie zurück. Für die industrielle Umsetzung vieler Transformationen stehen alternative Verfahren zur Verfügung. Die Vorteile der einzelnen Methoden werden in diesem Aufsatz anhand der Synthesen wichtiger Beispielverbindungen diskutiert.

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Optically Active Amines via Lipase‐Catalyzed Methoxyacetylation Racemic amines can be efficiently resolved using ethylmethoxyacetate as acylating agent in a lipase‐catalyzed reaction. The reaction of 1‐phenyethylamine with ethylmethoxyacetate in the presence of a lipase from Burkholderia plantarii is presented. Excellent yields and selectivity and minimal amount of enzyme characterize this new process.

A new phosphoramidite ligand was used in the iridium-catalyzed allylic substitution reaction. This permitted high regio- and enantioselectivities on a wide variety of substrates and nucleophiles. Because of the stereospecificity of the reaction obtained by using branched substrates, a kinetic resolution reaction was attempted. The origin of the impressive efficiency of this ligand in terms of kinetics was explored in detail, as was the role of the substituent in the ortho-position of the amine moiety.