Chemo-enzymatic enantio-convergent asymmetric synthesis of (R)-(+)-Marmin

Asymmetric biohydrolysis of trisubstituted terpenoid oxiranes (–) was accomplished by employing the epoxide hydrolase activity Rhodococcus and Streptomyces spp. Depending on the biocatalyst, the biohydrolysis proceeded in an enantio-convergent fashion and gave the corresponding vic-diols in up to 97% ee at conversions beyond the 50%-threshold. In order to avoid a depletion of the ee of product by further oxidative metabolism, bioconversions had to be conducted in an inert atmosphere with exclusion of molecular oxygen. The synthetic applicability of this method was demonstrated by the asymmetric total synthesis of the monoterpenoid coumarin (R)-(+)-Marmin in 95% ee.