Applications of enzymatic and non-enzymatic methods to access enantiomerically pure compounds using kinetic resolution and racemisation

The augmented awareness of the importance of chirality and its strong association with biological activity created an immense need for development of enantiomerically pure compounds at a reduced cost. The global sales of chiral technology products in 2008 were 4.3 billion dollars, which increased to 4.5 billion dollars in 2009 (representing 3.3% growth). The market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.8% to reach 5.1 billion dollars by 2014.1 Various methods have been reported to access enantiomerically pure compounds including synthesis from chiral pool, asymmetric synthesis from prochiral substrates and resolution of racemic mixtures2