Tetrahedron letters

A powerful new nitrile hydratase for organic synthesis—aromatic and heteroaromatic nitrile hydrolyses—a rationalisation

O Meth-Cohn, MX Wang

Index: Meth-Cohn, Otto; Wang, Mei-Xiang Tetrahedron Letters, 1995 , vol. 36, # 52 p. 9561 - 9564

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Citation Number: 36

Abstract

A powerful new nitrile hydratase organism, Rhodococcus rhodocrous AJ270 has been isolated that efficiently hydrolyses all kinds of nitriles to amides and/or acids. This paper shows that aromatic and heterocyclic nitriles are readily hydrolysed to acids but, that those bearing an adjacent-substituent (which may be an ortho substituent or an adjacent heteroatom in the ring) give amides in good yield but only slowly proceed to acids.