Lipase-Catalyzed Oligomerization and Hydrolysis of Alkyl Lactates: Direct Evidence in the Catalysis Mechanism That Enantioselection Is Governed by a Deacylation Step
l-lactates in similar conditions. Lipase-catalyzed hydrolysis of alkyl d- and l-lactates was also examined, revealing that the hydrolysis took place for both d- and l-lactates, although l-lactates proceeded a couple of times slower. The hydrolysis results clearly demonstrate that the lipase catalysis mechanism involves an acyl-enzymeintermediate (EM) formation via the acylation step from both d- and