ABSTRACT
Enantiomerically pure or enriched organic compounds play a prominent role in pharmaceutical, agricultural, synthetic organic, and natural products chemistry (1). For example, the so-called chiral market of industrial products in 2000 amounted to $100 billion (1d, e). Many of these products can be prepared in the laboratories of organic chemists. Although conventional separation of enantiomers is still the preferred process in industry (1d), catalytic processes are likely to dominate in the future because asymmetric catalysis has the potential of constituting the economically and ecologically most attractive strategy. The two most important options available to organic chemists are synthetic chiral transition metal catalysts (2), on the one hand, and enzymes, on the other (3). Indeed, both areas are growing in importance.
