The species Maytenus ilicifolia, Celastraceae, is popularly known as “espinheira-santa” and its leaves are widely used in the form of tea in folk medicine for the treatment of stomach ulcers and gastritis. Chemical and biological studies report other activities such as contraceptive, analgesic, antioxidant, among others, which are closely related to the presence of flavonoids, tannins and terpenes. The pentacyclic triterpenes (C30) is the subclass that deserves attention in species of the genus Maytenus, among them friedelin and friedelan-3-ol, which are the most abundant compounds in the nonpolar extract of M. ilicifolia leaves. From a biosynthetic point of view, friedelin is the only pentacyclic triterpene that is oxidized at carbon 3 (C-3) as a ketone and the proposed mechanism for the formation of this function does not involve the formation of an enol form. However, the concomitant accumulation of friedelin and its reduced derivative, friedelan-3-ol, raises interesting biosynthetic aspects to be investigated. In this context, the aim of this work is to identify a reductase-like enzyme capable of reducing a ketone group at the C-3 position of terpenes in its alcoholic derivatives using molecular biology and microbiology tools. Through bioinformatics analysis, four transcripts were considered promising since they bear characteristic motifs of 3-ketoreductse, a type of Short-Chain Dehydrogenase (SDR). So far, two of them (45855_i6 and 52338_i1) were cloned by Gateway Cloning Technology, sequenced and transformed into the yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae KB13 containing a plasmid carrying the friedelin synthase gene (FRS) which will provide the substrate (friedelin) to the enzyme of interest. The yeast cells were galactose induced and the spent medium extracted with hexane/ethyl acetate 7:3 was analyzed by GC-MS. The chromatograms showed only the friedelin production suggesting that both transcripts don’t reduce the friedelin keto group in friedelan-3-ol. These results are of interest since could be the entry point of the friedelan derivatives biosynthetic pathway in M. ilicifolia and ultimately may provide a sustainable heterologous source of these pharmacologically important metabolites.