Hydrolysis of Hydantoins, Dihydropyrimidines, and Related Compounds

Providing advantages including high chemo-, regio-, and enantioselectivity as well as mild
reaction conditions, biocatalytic reaction systems are becoming increasingly important
for the synthesis of chiral fine chemicals. This chapter focuses on hydantoins and related
compounds as promising substrates for the synthesis of optically pure amino acids and on
the enzymes involved in these processes. In particular, the production of d-amino acids,
such as d-4-hydroxyphenylglycine, via the so-called “hydantoinase process” is now well
established. Many investigations regarding the synthesis of l-amino acids with the help
of this process have also been carried out. A further interesting application is the synthe-
sis of ß-amino acids, which are gaining importance in the pharmaceutical industry due to
their special structure. Different possibilities for the application of modified hydantoi-
nase processes are discussed, in which dihydropyrimidines serve as substrates for
ß-amino acid synthesis. Moreover, various methods to improve the synthesis of amino acids are
described.