Short and efficient synthesis of a stock material of dihydroxyacetone phosphate from glycidol

As enzymatic syntheses are expensive for a large-scale preparation of DHAP, a precursor leading to DHAP was synthesized in three steps starting from (+/-) glycidol; the stable benzylated stock material afforded by hydrogenolysis DHAP in high purity, which may be used directly without purification in enzymatic aldol synthesis. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.