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Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have emerged as promising solutions in many areas of chemistry. DES have many of the advantages of ionic liquids (e.g., low vapor pressure, nonflammability, tunability, etc.) but have lower costs, straightforward syntheses, and are often biodegradable. In this minireview, we discuss briefly the applications of DES in areas such as biotransformations, organocatalysis, and combinations of these that lead to multistep processes. DES can be used as solvents, cosolvents, performance additives for bio- and organocatalysis, tools to anchor organocatalysts selectively, or for extraction/separation. Several DES have been used both as solvents and organocatalysts at the same time. Given their promising features, it may be expected that many applications in these areas will appear in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrolases catalyze synthetic reactions in nonaqueous media, whereas they perform hydrolysis under aqueous solutions. An acyl transferase from Mycobacterium smegmatis (MsAcT) is able to catalyze synthetic reactions in buffer because of its highly hydrophobic active site, which enables efficient transesterification reactions even at 99.9 % v/v buffer solution. This unique feature of MsAcT among hydrolases may open new opportunities to conduct synthetic (bio)catalysis in aqueous media. With these goals in mind, this paper explores some evidence of such potential: MsAcT can perform enantioselective transesterifications (e.g., ( S)-2-octanol), which could be combined with other aqueous multistep (asymmetric) reactions; 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) can be esterified to produce more hydrophobic and easily extractable HMF esters (e.g., for downstream processing or wastewater treatment); and upon addition of dilute H2O2, MsAcT works efficiently as a perhydrolase to form in situ peracids-in bulk water-that can be used for oxidations (e.g., furfural to furoic acid oxidation). Overall, these and many other new applications can be envisaged by using MsAcT in aqueous solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]