Semisynthetic transformation of banana peel to enhance the conversion of sugars to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural.

This study aimed to efficiently convert banana peels (BP) into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) by using an integrated mechanoenzymatic/catalytic approach. There is no report on HMF production using mechanoenzymatic hydrolysis. Moreover, this method enables saccharification of lignocellulose without bulk solvents or pretreatment.

Mechanoenzymology: State of the Art and Challenges towards Highly Sustainable Biocatalysis.

Global awareness of the importance of developing environmentally friendlier and more sustainable methods for the synthesis of valuable chemical compounds has led to the design of novel synthetic strategies, involving bio- and organocatalysis as well as the application of novel efficient and ground-breaking technologies such as present-day solvent-free mechanochemistry. In this regard, the evaluation of biocatalytic protocols mediated by the combination of mechanical activation and enzymatic catalysis has recently attracted the attention of the chemical community. Such mechanoenzymatic strategy represents an innovative and promising "green" approach in chemical synthesis that poses nevertheless new paradigms regarding the relative resilience of biomolecules to the mechanochemical stress and to the apparent high energy, at least in so-called hot-spots, during the milling process.

Correction: Mechanochemical enzymatic resolution of -benzylated-β-amino esters.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3762/bjoc.13.

Mechanochemical enzymatic resolution of -benzylated-β-amino esters.

The use of mechanochemistry to carry out enantioselective reactions has been explored in the last ten years with excellent results. Several chiral organocatalysts and even enzymes have proved to be resistant to milling conditions, which allows for rather efficient enantioselective transformations under ball-milling conditions. The present article reports the first example of a liquid-assisted grinding (LAG) mechanochemical enzymatic resolution of racemic β-amino esters employing lipase B (CALB) to afford highly valuable enantioenriched -benzylated-β-amino acids in good yields.