Abstract

Cancer is the principal cause of death in economically developed countries and the second leading cause of death in developing countries, and this disease is very rapidly growing as a result of both population aging and adoption of cancer-associated routine choices including smoking, physical sedentariness, and ‘‘westernized’’ nourishments. Thus, there is an increasing demand on anticancer drugs, and this demand must be focussed under Green Chemistry postulates, in order to increase the sustainability of Pharmaceutical Industry. In this sense, the use of biocatalyzed protocols in the preparation of those drugs is reporting considerable advantages, especially when water is used as solvent, because of its green behaviour. In this paper, different examples will be shown illustrating this topic.

Keywords: Biocatalysis, Cancer, Chiral intermediates, Drugs, Green chemistry, Natural products, Water.