eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biomedical and Pharmacology Journal 0974-6242 2016-08-21 9 2 469 476 10.13005/bpj/960 7798 article Mohammed Said Nedjimi 1 Lakhdar Sekhri 1 Laboratoire de Dynamique Interaction et Réactivité des Systèmes, Process Engineering Department, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University Kasdi Merbah, Ouargla 30000, Algeria. The present work is aimed mainly to investigate and find novel route for the most important, fundamental and practical asymmetric reduction reaction of prochiral ketones in order to produce non-racemic chiral alcohols, from which many industrially important chemicals such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and natural products. This study underscored the bioreduction of various acetophenones: Acetophenone, 4'-nitroacetophenone and 4'-haloacetophenones (X=F, Cl, and Br) were chosen as the model substrates for simple ketones, nitro and halogen-containing aromatic ketones. Cynara scolumus L., Terfezia sp and Phoenix dactylifer L. were chosen as the biocatalysts. It was found that these kinds of prochiral ketones could be reduced by these plants tissue with high enantioselectivity. Both R- and S-form configuration chiral alcohols could be obtained. The ee and chemical yield could reach about 89.0 and 77.2% respectively for acetophenone,  82.0 and 52.0% respectively for 4'-nitroacetophenone and 96.5 and 65.5% respectively for 4'-haloacetophenones (X=F, Cl, and Br) reduction reaction with favorable plant tissue. The results obtained in the present study suggest that the Cynara Scolumus L, Terfezia sp and Phoenix dactylifera L can be used as biocatalysts in synthesis many enantiomerically pure pharmaceuticals. https://biomedpharmajournal.org/vol9no2/asymmetric-bioreduction-of-prochiral-ketones-catalyzed-by-cynara-scolumus-l-terfezia-sp-and-phoenix-dactylifera-l/ Biocatalysts chiral alcohols acetophenones Phoenix dactylifera Cynara Scolumus