PRODUCTION OF OPTICALLY ACTIVE BENZHYDROL COMPOUND

Japanese Patent JP3771615

B2

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To produce a high-purity optically active benzhydrol compound useful as a synthetic intermediate for medicines according to simple operations by hydrogenating a benzophenone compound in the presence of a specific asymmetric hydrogenating catalyst, SOLUTION: (A) A benzophenone compound represented by formula I (R1, R5, R6 and R10 are each H, a halogen, hydroxy, etc.; R2 to R4 and R7 to R9 are each H, a halogen, hydroxy or a lower alkyl) is hydrogenated in the presence of (B) an asymmetric hydrogenating catalyst comprising (i) a transition metallic complex, (ii) a base and (iii) an optically active diamine compound to afford the objective compound represented by formula II (mark * indicates the position of asymmetric carbon) (e.g. optically active 4-methylbenzhydrol). Furthermore, the compoflent (i) is preferably a ruthenium complex represented by the formula [RU2X4(L)2] (A) (X is a halogen; L is an optically active phosphine ligand; A is a tertiary amine), etc., and the composition (ii) is preferably a compound represented by the formula MYn [M is an alkali(ne earth) metal; Y is hydroxy, etc.; (n) is 1 or 2] or a quaternary ammonium salt.