ABSTRACT
Chemical reactions are usually carried out under rigorous conditions. They often involve highly reactive ingredients, which may be toxic or carcinogenic, that are used in the organic solvents. High temperatures and pressures may be involved, especially in the production of commodity chemicals. Biocatalysis offers the possibility of making many of the products that we need in water at or near room temperature. It uses whole organisms, usually microorganisms, or the enzymes from them, to carry out the chemical transformations.1 It is an aspect of biotechnology. Chemoenzymatic syntheses, that is, those sequences of reactions where both chemical and biological steps are involved, are becoming increasingly common.
