Biosynthesis of some Mannich bases

Abstract

The Mannich reaction is extremely useful to form molecules that contain nitrogen groups. Currently, there is a great interest turned to this class of compounds due to its biological properties. The recent literature reports that the utilization of enzymes can be an adequate methodology on this type of reaction. According to the exposed above and with the intention of synthesizing the -aminoketones, some catalysts like Chymosin and also some microorganisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, (sourdough bread) and Lactobacilos (ATCC 90827LA10N19.10-E.U.A) were applied. These reactions were carried out by using water as solvent at room temperature excelling for the Green Chemistry principles. Figure 1 shows the reaction scheme involving 1 eq.mol of aniline, 1,3 eq.mol of formaldehyde, 10 ml of water and 0,25g of the catalyst during four days. The reaction furnished satisfactory yields which are in accordance with the literature data.

Keywords

• biosynthesis
• mannich reaction
• chymosin