Af. Mcanda et al., MECHANISM OF THE YEAST MEDIATED REDUCTION OF NITROSTYRENES IN LIGHT PETROLEUM, Journal of the Chemical Society. Perkin transactions. I, (3), 1998, pp. 501-504
The yeast mediated reduction of a range of alpha- and beta-deutero sub
stituted nitrostyrenes has been conducted in light petroleum in the pr
esence of a small amount of water or D2O. NMR analysis of the products
from these reactions has allowed the determination of the mechanism o
f this yeast reduction reaction. The results indicate that initially,
a reversible non-stereoselective protonation occurs at the beta-centre
, followed by stereoselective addition of hydride at the alpha-positio
n.