Enzymes in action : green solutions for chemical problems

This is a survey of a modern development in organic chemistry.

It is clear that bioreagents demand that organic chemists think in a different way.

If they do so, they will open up new avenues of exciting, new chemistry that will permit problems to be solved in an elegant way.

The first section covers the concepts necessary to understand enzymes in molecular operations.

The second section covers heteroatom enzyme chemistry, with considerable attention being given to the use of enzymes in the detoxification of chemical warfare agents and their application in environmental problems.

The final section highlights the strategic use of enzymes in organic chemistry.

The term "green chemistry" is appropriate, since enzyme mediated processes occur under mild, environmentally benign conditions, and enzymes enable chemists to perform new chemical operations that would otherwise be difficult to achieve at all.