A Powerful New Nitrile Hydratase For Organic Synthesis-Aromatic And Heteroaromatic Nitrile Hydrolyses- A Rationalisation

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/0040-4039(95)02048-9

A powerful new nitrile hydratase organism, Rhodococcus rhodocrous AJ270 has been isolated that efficiently hydrolyses all kinds of nitriles to amides and/or acids.This paper shows that aromatic and heterocyclic nitriles are readily hydrolysed to acids but, that those bearing an adjacent-substituent (which may be an ortho substituent or an adjacent heteroatom in the ring) give amides in good yield but only slowly proceed to acids.