Green Approaches To Asymmetric Catalytic Synthesis

Book excerpt: Nowadays, chirality is widely accepted as an important factor in molecular recognition processes and the biological activity of many pharmaceutical drugs and agrochemicals; this is confirmed by the continuous need for synthetic methods which lead to single or enriched enantiomers of such compounds. By presenting a review of the various and more recently developed approaches for both metal-transition and organocatalysis, this volume describes the development of “greener” asymmetric reactions which preserve stereoselectivity. The author summarizes the impressive amount of research that has been gathered within this field into three chapters focusing on: i)the search of alternative catalysts, ii) alternative solvents, and iii) alternative synthetic strategies and processes. For each topic, the fundamentals and some valuable applications are discussed.