Stereoselective Biocatalyzed Reductions of Ginger Active Principles Recovered from Industrial Wastes

Ginger is among the traditional medicinal plants most diffused and widely consumed around the world. Its beneficial effects, which comprise e.g. anticancer and antiinflammatory activities as well as gastrointestinal regulatory effects, are generally addressed to a family of non-volatile compounds characterized by an arylalkyl long-chained alcohol, diol or ketone moiety. In this work, ginger active principles have been successfully recovered from industrial waste biomasses of fermented ginger. Moreover, their recovery has been combined with the first systematic study of the stereoselective reduction of gingerol-like compounds by isolated alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs), obtaining the enantioenriched sec -alcohol derivatives via a sustainable biocatalytic path in up to >99% conversions and >99% enantiomeric/diastereomeric excesses.