Demonstration of the chiral inversion of ibuprofen by Verticillium lecanii in non‐growing cultures

Racemic ibuprofen has previously been shown to undergo metabolism by Verticillium lecanii to yield (S)‐2‐[4‐(2‐hydroxy‐2‐methylpropyl)phenyl] propionic acid which is enriched in the (S)‐enantiomer. However, it had not been possible to elucidate whether ibuprofen or the metabolite was inverted. This paper describes the incubation of ibuprofen in non‐growing cultures of V. lecanii, the results of which indicate that racemic ibuprofen is converted into a 70 : 30 (S : R) enantiomeric mixture after 6 d incubation in the absence of any metabolism. This suggests that V. lecanii could be a useful model for the investigation of the mechanism of mammalian chiral inversion of iburprofen.