Biocatalytic preparation of chiral alcohols by enantioselective reduction with immobilized cells of carrot

The ability of immobilized cells of Daucus carota to reduce enantioselectively organic foreign substrates has been examined. The immobilized plant cells reduced, with excellent enantioselectivity, prochiral ketone substrates such as keto esters, aromatic ketones and heterocyclic aromatic ketones, leading to the corresponding chiral secondary alcohols with an enantiomeric purity of 52–99% ee in a chemical yield of 30–63%.