Purple carrots: Better biocatalysts for the enantioselective reduction of acetophenones than common orange carrots (D. carota)

•Carrots are reproducible biocatalysts for reduction of acetophenones.•Purple carrot was a better biocatalyst than the common orange variety.•Substituted acetophenones can also be reduced by purple carrots.

The constant and reproducible enantioselective reduction of acetophenones were investigated in several edible plants. Among them, only carrot (Daucus carota) acted as a reliable biocatalyst. Different carrot varieties (orange, yellow and purple carrots) in contact with substituted acetophenones gave the corresponding optically-active alcohols in good-to-excellent rates of conversion with high enantioselectivity. Comparatively, the purple carrot was a better biocatalyst than the common orange variety.

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