Chemoenzymatic Halogenation of Phenols by using the Haloperoxidase from Curvularia inaequalis

The vanadium-dependent chloroperoxidase from Curvularia inaequalis is an efficient biocatalyst for the insitu generation of hypohalous acids and subsequent electrophilic oxidation/halogenation reactions. Especially, its superb activity and stability under operational conditions make it an attractive catalyst for organic synthesis. Herein, the efficient bromination of thymol was investigated, and turnover numbers of the enzyme were found to exceed 2000000. The major novelty of the work is that vanadium chloroperoxidase is more useful as a brominating enzyme than vanadium bromoperoxidase in terms of operational stability, besides being far more stable than heme-containing peroxidases.