Four orders of magnitude rate increase in artificial enzyme-catalyzed aryl glycoside hydrolysis

(6(super A)R,6(super D)R)-6(super A),6(super D)-Di-C-cyano-beta-cyclodextrin and 6(super A),6(super D)-di-C-cyano-alpha-cyclodextrin are synthesized and shown to catalyze hydrolysis of aryl glycosides into glucose and phenol with a reaction following Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Cyclodextrin cyanohydrins are shown to be remarkably efficient artificial enzymes catalyzing close to 10(super4).