First Bioreduction of 2,2,2-trifluoro-1-phenylethanone by Whole Hyphae of Marine Fungus Mucor racemosus CBMAI 847 Under Microwave Radiation

This paper reports on the asymmetric reduction of 2,2,2-trifluoro-1-phenylethanone 1a to the corresponding (S)-2,2,2-trifluoro-1-phenylethanol 1b by marine fungus M. racemosus CBMAI 847 under conventional heating (CH) and microwave radiation (MW). The results show that (S)-alcohol was obtained with good conversion (64-100%) and enantiomeric excess (74-99%) for both methods performed under conventional heating (orbital shaking) and microwave radiation. When 2,2,2- trifluoro-1-phenylethanone 1a was reduced by fungus under microwave radiation, the methodology showed to be very efficient to obtain enantiomerically pure alcohol 1b in comparison to the conventional heating. This is the first report on the use of microwave-assistant in biocatalytic reactions catalyzed by marine fungus.