Biocontrolled Formal Inversion or Retention of L‐α‐Amino Acids to Enantiopure (R)‐ or (S)‐Hydroxyacids

Natural L-α-amino acids and L-norleucine were transformed to the corresponding α-hydroxy acids by formal biocatalytic inversion or retention of absolute configuration. The one-pot transformation was achieved by a concurrent oxidation reduction cascade in aqueous media. A representative panel of enantiopure (R)- and (S)-2-hydroxy acids possessing aliphatic, aromatic and heteroaromatic moieties were isolated in high yield (67–85 %) and enantiopure form (>99 % ee) without requiring chromatographic purification.