Synthesis of bis-lactone lignans through laccase catalysis

We report here on the use of a biphasic reaction solvent during the laccase catalysed transformation of sinapinic and ferulic acids. As compared to buffer alone, higher product selectivity, higher yields and higher product stability were obtained simply using ethyl acetate as added non-miscible co-solvent. Reactions run in biphasic medium are marginally longer but offer an easy separation protocol allowing to obtain the highest yield reported so far for the synthesis of the two bis-lactone lignans originating from sinapinic and ferulic acids.