Stereochemical aspects of flavour biogeneration through baker's yeast mediated reduction of carbonyl-activated double bonds

Abstract

The baker's yeast mediated reduction of the unsaturated carbonyl compounds 4, 5 and 6 has been studied in the context of the generation of the natural forms of the flavour materials 1, 2 and 3. The stereochemical aspects of these processes and of those regarding the reduction of the structurally related enones 18, 12, 30, 31 and 32 have been elucidated also by means of deuterium labelling experiments.