Aminolysis and Ammonolysis of Carboxylic Acid Derivatives

Over the past years, interest in the preparation of chiral amines and amides by enzymatic ammonolysis or aminolysis reactions [4] has greatly increased for academic and industrial sectors. The role that the enzymatic acylation of amines or ammonia plays for the preparation of some pharmaceuticals is noteworthy [5]. 

Although the aminolysis of esters to amides is auseful synthetic operation, usually it presents some disadvantages in terms of drastic reaction conditions, long reaction times or strong alkali metal as catalyst, which are usually not compatible with other functional groups in the molecule [6]. For this reason, enzymatic aminolysis of carboxylic acid derivatives offers a clean and ecological way for the preparation of different kind of amines and amides in a regio-, chemo-, and enantioselective manner. 

In the last decade, biocatalysis in nonaqueous media, using hydrolases, has been widely used for organic chemists. The possibilities that these biocatalysts offer for the preparation of different types of organic compounds, depending upon the nucleophile 

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