saccharomyces cerevisiae as a biocatalyst for different carbonyl group under green condition

in this researchsaccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast) was used as a cheap, readily accessible, selective, efficient, and green bio-catalyst in a chemo selective reduction of carbonyl group to hydroxyl group. in this green procedure three substrates e.g. (3-(3-nitrophenyl)aziridin-2-yl)-1-phenyl-methanone, pyruvate ester, and 2-acetyl-γ-butyrolactone were reduced to their corresponding reduced compounds in the presence of saccharomyces cerevisiae atambient temperature in aqueous media. it was worthy to note that ketone groups were chemo-selectively reduced, while ester and lactone groups remained unchanged. moreover, in this procedure, chemo selective bio-reduction of ketone group to hydroxyl group can be performed by coenzyme nadph in saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast) which is recyclable in water, as a green solvent, while this recyclization cannot occur in non-aqueous systems. the structure of products was confirmed by ir and 1h nmr spectra.