Abstract Prochiral stereospecificity of enzymes in organic solvents was used to develop a strategy for the formation of heretofore unknown chiral monosubstituted malonate diesters with high enantiomeric excess. The enzymatic reaction involved transesterification of symmetrical monosubstituted dimethyl malonates with benzyl alcohol, exploiting the ability of lipases to discriminate between the enantiotopic ester groups of the symmetrical ...
