Fresh root of Vietnamese carrot (Daucus carota L.) has been employed as a biocatalyst in the asymmetric reduction of prochiral ketones and the enantioselective hydrolysis of racemic esters. In the previous reaction, (S)-alcohols were formed in quantitative yield with highly enantiomeric purity (ee > 93%). However in the latter, this biocatalyst presented a poor enantioselectivity (ee < 50%). Besides, the selectively reducing capability of carrot on a conjugated aldehyde and a racemic mixture of aldehyde was also investigated.
