Recent advances in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical and agrochemical ingredients in micellar media

Designer surfactants as specific amphiphilic neutral compounds for micellar catalysis has revolutionized metal catalysis making water a true alternative to organic solvents. In recent years most workhorse reactions in pharmaceutical industry have been developed under aqueous micellar conditions. In this review we underline the recent achievements in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical and agrochemical ingredients (API) and intermediates carried out in water under micellar conditions with a focus on high product yield, improvement in sustainability and waste reduction, easy product isolation and minimization of by-product formation. The close cooperation between pharmaceutical industry and academia will soon bring micellar catalysis to large scale industrial productions of API.