Biocatalysis:A Brief Review

Bio catalysis underpins some of the oldest chemical transformations known to humans. Biocatalysis is the use of natural catalysts, such as protein enzymes to perform chemical transformations on organic compounds. Both enzymes that have been more or less isolated and enzymes still residing inside living cells are employed for this task. More than one hundred years ago, bio catalysis was employed to do chemical transformations on non-natural man-made organic compounds and the last 30 years have seen a substantial increase in the application of bio catalysis to produce fine chemicals, especially for the pharmaceutical industry. Here the author emphasizes on the various application of biocatalysts useful in the pharmaceutical industry.