The provision of pure enantiomers is of increasing importance not only for the pharmaceutical industry but also for agrochemistry and biotechnology. In general, there are two rival approaches to provide pure enantiomers. The "chiral" approach is based on developing an asymmetric synthesis of just one of the enantiomers, while the "racemic" approach is based on separating mixtures of the two enantiomers. In the last few years remarkable progress has been achieved in the latter area. This Review focuses in particular on enantioselective crystallization processes and preparative chromatography, including hybrid processes and the incorporation of racemization steps. Several examples from our research are used for illustration purposes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.