Thiol-free chemoenzymatic synthesis of β-ketosulfides.

A preparation of β-ketosulfides avoiding the use of thiols is described. The combination of a multicomponent reaction and a lipase-catalysed hydrolysis has been developed in order to obtain high chemical diversity employing a single sulfur donor. This methodology for the selective synthesis of a set of β-ketosulfides is performed under mild conditions and can be set up in one-pot two-step and on a gram-scale.