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. 2014 Aug 27;53(41):10925–10927. doi: 10.1002/anie.201406125

Scheme 1.

Scheme 1

BBOX catalyzes oxidative desymmetrization. A) BBOX catalyzes the stereoselective hydroxylation of γ-butyrobetaine (GBB) to (3R)-carnitine during carnitine biosynthesis. B) The BBOX-catalyzed oxidation of achiral N,N-dimethyl piperidine-4-carboxylic acid (1) gives (3R)-hydroxy-(4S)-N,N-dimethyl-piperidine-4-carboxylic acid (2). In the BBOX-catalyzed oxidation of a mixture of cis-N,N-ethylmethyl-piperidine-4-carboxylic acid (3 a) and trans-N,N-ethylmethyl-piperidine-4-carboxylic acid (3 b), only the cis isomer undergoes effective hydroxylation to give (3R)-hydroxy-(1R)-N,N-dimethyl-piperidine-(4S)-carboxylic acid (4 a).