Enzyme mediated kinetic resolution of δ-hydroxy-α,β-unsaturated esters as a route to optically active δ-lactones

A novel synthetic route to optically active saturated and unsaturated δ-lactones based on enzymatic kinetic resolution and ring-closing metathesis reactions has been proposed. The influence of temperature, co-solvent, organic additives and the substrate structure on the catalytic behavior of selected hydrolases was studied. The substantial impact of the organic co-solvent and surfactant type on the enzymatic activity and enantioselectivity was observed providing enantiomerically pure δ-hydroxy-α,β-unsaturated esters. The established protocol combining enzymatic kinetic resolution with ring closing metathesis was successfully applied in the synthesis of the enantiomerically pure (6R)-phenyl-5,6-dihydro-2H-pyran-2-one which plays crucial role in the synthesis of the number of bioactive compounds.