Abstract: A process for preparing optically active alcohols of the formula Ia or Ib in which R1,R2 are alkyl, alkenyl, aryl, or alkylaryl groups which may in turn be substituted one or more times by alkyl, halogen, SH, SR2, OH, OR2, NO2, CN, CO, COOR2, NR2R3 or NR2R3R4+X, where R2, R3 and R4 are independently of one another H or a lower alkyl or lower alkoxy radical, and X?is a counter ion, with the proviso that R1 is not equal to R2, by reducing the corresponding ketone, where the reduction is carried out with a dehydrogenase having the polypeptide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or NO: 4, or with a polypeptide sequence in which up to 25% of the amino acid residues are altered by comparison with SEQ ID NO: 2 or NO: 4 by deletion, insertion, substitution or a combination thereof.

Abstract: A method for producing optically active alcohols of formula (Ia) or (Ib), wherein R1, R2 are alkyl, alkenyl, aryl, or alkylaryl groups, which in turn can be mono-substituted or poly-substituted with alkyl, halogen, SH, SR2, OH, OR2, NO2, CN, CO, COOR2, NR2R3 or NR2R3R4+X, wherein R2, R3 and R4 independently of each other are H or a low-alkyl or low-alkoxy radical, and X? is a counterion, with the stipulation that R1 is not identical to R2, by reduction of the corresponding ketone, the reduction being performed with a dehydrogenase having the polypeptide sequence SEQ ID NO:2 or NO:4, or having a polypeptide sequence in which up to 25% of the amino acid radicals are modified relative to SEQ ID NO:2 or NO:4 by deletion, insertion, substitution, or a combination thereof.