Unknown

Dataset Information

0

Thiols Act as Methyl Traps in the Biocatalytic Demethylation of Guaiacol Derivatives.


ABSTRACT: Demethylating methyl phenyl ethers is challenging, especially when the products are catechol derivatives prone to follow-up reactions. For biocatalytic demethylation, monooxygenases have previously been described requiring molecular oxygen which may cause oxidative side reactions. Here we show that such compounds can be demethylated anaerobically by using cobalamin-dependent methyltransferases exploiting thiols like ethyl 3-mercaptopropionate as a methyl trap. Using just two equivalents of this reagent, a broad spectrum of substituted guaiacol derivatives were demethylated, with conversions mostly above 90 %. This strategy was used to prepare the highly valuable antioxidant hydroxytyrosol on a one-gram scale in 97 % isolated yield.

SUBMITTER: Pompei S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8361964 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

altmetric image

Publications

Thiols Act as Methyl Traps in the Biocatalytic Demethylation of Guaiacol Derivatives.

Pompei Simona S   Grimm Christopher C   Schiller Christine C   Schober Lukas L   Kroutil Wolfgang W  

Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) 20210629 31


Demethylating methyl phenyl ethers is challenging, especially when the products are catechol derivatives prone to follow-up reactions. For biocatalytic demethylation, monooxygenases have previously been described requiring molecular oxygen which may cause oxidative side reactions. Here we show that such compounds can be demethylated anaerobically by using cobalamin-dependent methyltransferases exploiting thiols like ethyl 3-mercaptopropionate as a methyl trap. Using just two equivalents of this  ...[more]

Similar Datasets

| S-EPMC10946705 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC7506938 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC9540666 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC9325775 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC8382264 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC3678522 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC6010023 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC10664549 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC6628921 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC6426947 | biostudies-literature