Biotransformation studies on bioactive compounds: 25 years of interesting research at the ICCBS

Biotransformation of natural, synthetic, and semi-synthetic compounds has emerged as a frontier branch of chemical sciences that is progressively being applied in numerous fields. In the present review, we have summarized our biotransformation studies on bioactive compounds from 1997 to 2022. Various microbial and plant cell cultures were used for biocatalytic structural transformations. We present here an overview of biotransformation of 53 compounds belonging to various classes of natural, synthetic, and semi-synthetic compounds, published in several leading journals. The structures of the resulting metabolites have been elucidated by detailed spectroscopic studies. Oxidation, reduction, dehydrogenation, chlorination, aromatization, methylation, demethylation, rearrangements, etc. were the main reactions that occurred during the biotransformation processes. Many of the biotransformed products exhibited interesting biological activities. Structural transformations in some cases have also led to improved pharmacokinetic profiles. This review is aimed to provide a focused account of extensive work carried out in our laboratories in this field, as well as the immense potential of biocatalytic transformations in organic chemistry.