Vinyl acetate (VA) is a potential and practical acetylating reagent for the optical resolution of enantiomers in the racemate by lipase (triacylglycerol hydrolase, EC 3.1.1.3) catalyzed transesterification in organic solvent: VA irreversibly reacts with the active serine (Ser) residue in lipase to give the acetyl-enzyme intermediate [Enz-Ac] because vinyl alcohol is immediately converted to acetaldehyde by keto-enol tautomerization. This irreversibility is considered to accelerate the reaction rate. Such a reaction is called "irreversible transesterification" (1) and applied to the optical resolution of numerous secondary alcohols (1-5). On the other hand, the analyses of optical resolution data are complicated for lipase catalyzed transesterification with VA. It is reported that the enantioselectivity [E: the enantiomeric ratio for the homocompetitive reaction (6-9), i.e., as the reaction is irreversible] at low conversion is greater than that at high conversion (>50%) for Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase (PFL) catalyzed transesterification with racemic b-methyl-(2-643
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