Recently, bio-deoxygenation of myo-inositol has successfully been carried out employing bacterial strains 1 to produce mainly (−)-vibo-quercitol 2, together with (+)-epi and (+)-proto-quercitol. These quercitols, or deoxyinositols, can be readily separated and purified by a combination of chromatography on ion-exchange-resin columns and subsequent recrystallization, and the major product, (−)-vibo-quercitol is now commercially available. We have become interested in ...