Highly diastereoselective inter-esterification reactions involving a racemic acetate and a racemic carboxylic acid catalysed by lipase enzymes

Reaction of the acetate (±)-8 with the acid (±)-2 using Candida cylindracea lipase or Lipase AY as catalyst gave mainly the (R,R)-diastereoisomer 4(91 ± 0.5%) with minimal amounts of the other diastereoisomers 3, 5 and 6(<5.5%).