Z-Phenylacetaldoxime

Phenylacetaldoxime is an intermediate in the biosynthesis of benzylglucosinolate. It is a glucosinolate and this class of natural products are gaining increasing interest as cancer-preventing agents and crop protectants. The first enzyme in its biodegradation pathway, phenylacetaldoxime dehydratase, is interesting not only because it can degrade phenylaldoxime to phenylactonitrile, but also because of its potential in organic synthesis since the chemical dehydration of aldoximes usually requires harsh reaction conditions ([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9683644|Kato et al., 1998]). The degradation pathway of phenylacetonitrile shown here is similar to the Benzonitrile Pathway.