The importance of water as a reaction solvent

As this chapter indicates water is not simply a cheap and environmentally benign solvent, important though that is. Instead, the hydrophobic effect seen in water permits chemistry otherwise not accessible. It permits the construction of enzyme mimics that use hydrophobic forces to bind the substrates to the catalysts. It permits those reactions, and others, to achieve 

Breslow, R., Biomimetic chemistry. Centenary lecture, Chem. Soc. Rev., 1972,1, 553 580. 

Breslow, R., Biomimetic chemistry in oriented systems, Isr. J. Chem., 1979,18,187 191. 

Breslow, R., Biomimetic control of chemical selectivity, Acc. Chem. Res., 1980,13,170 177. 

Breslow, R., Adjusting the lock and adjusting the key in cyclodextrin chemistry. In Dolphin, D., McKeima, C., Murakami, Y. and Tabushi, I. (Eds.), Biomimetic Chemistry, American Chemical Society, Wishington, DC, 1980, pp. 1 15. 

---