State of the Art and Outlook

Abstract

The biotransformations described in this book show that the area is in an active state of development and that enzymes have captured an important place in contemporary organic synthesis [1, 2]. This is reflected by the fact that in 1991 8% of all papers published in the area of synthetic organic chemistry contained elements of biotransformations [3]. The frequency of use of a particular biocatalyst is not evenly distributed among the various types of transformations but follows a pattern shown in Figure 4.1 [4]. In this book, attention has been focused on those methods which are most useful for and accessible to synthetic chemists — the rating of methods according to their general applicability and reliability is intended!