Enzymatic Racemisation and its Application to Synthetic Biotransformations

In contrast to kinetic resolution, where only 50% of the racemic starting material can be converted into the desired product and where the remaining ‘wrong' enantiomer has to be considered as waste, so‐called deracemisation processes allow the production of a single stereoisomeric product from racemic starting material. In this context, the use of environmentally benign methods for biocatalytic racemisation holds great potential. The small and largely overlooked group of racemases (EC 5.1.X.X), which are increasingly being used for dynamic kinetic resolution or in auxiliary biocatalytic recycling processes, are reviewed with respect to their properties, their substrate tolerance and their biocatalytic potential.