A chemoenzymatic approach to the synthesis of enantiomerically pure ( S )-3-hydroxy-γ-butyrolactone

Abstract  Optically pure (S)-3-hydroxy-γ-butyrolactone, an important chiral building block in the pharmaceutical industry, was synthesized from l-malic acid by combining a selective hydrogenation and a lipase-catalyzed hydrolysis. Lipase fr