Kinetic resolutions of racemic amines and alcohols catalyzed by an industrial glutaryl-7-aminocephalosporanic acid acylase with unexpected broad substrate specificity

An industrial glutaryl-7-aminocephalosporanic acid acylase (GAR) possesses a significant broad substrate specificity that crosses over the usual cephalosporanic skeleton. Enantioselective amidase and even esterase activities have been observed with all the glutarates of racemic substrates investigated, with a stereopreference for the (S)-enantiomer. The different physical-chemical properties of reagents and products allow their easy separation by solvent extraction, avoiding cumbersome chromatography or distillation processes during reaction work-up. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.