Bioreduction of 4′-Hydroxychalcone in Deep Eutectic Solvents: Optimization and Efficacy with Various Yeast Strains

4′-dihydrochalcones are secondary metabolites isolated from many medicinal plants and from the resin known as ‘dragon’s blood’. Due to their biological potential, our research objective was to determine the possibilities of using biocatalysis processes carried out in deep eutectic solvents (DESs) to obtain 4′-dihydrochalcones as a model compound. The processes were carried out in a culture of the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica KCh 71 and also in cultures of strains of the genera Rhodotorula and Debaryomyces. Based on the experiments carried out, an optimum process temperature of 35 °C was chosen, and the most suitable DES contained glycerol as a hydrogen bond donor (HBD). For a medium with 30% water content (DES 11), the conversion observed after 24 h exceeded 70%, while increasing the amount of water to 50% resulted in a similar level of conversion after just 1 h. A fivefold increase in the amount of added substrate resulted in a reduction in conversion, which reached 30.3%. Of the other yeast strains tested, Rhodotorula marina KCh 77 and Rhodotorula rubra KCh 4 also proved to be good biocatalysts for the bioreduction process. For these strains, the conversion reached 95.4% and 95.1%, respectively. These findings highlight the potential of yeast as a biocatalyst for the selective reduction of α,β-unsaturated ketones and the possibility of using a DESs as a reaction medium in this process.