Greener solvents: Room temperature ionic liquids from biorenewable sources

Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have attracted a great deal of interest as environmentally benign (green) solvents for organic synthesis. More recently, RTILs that are chiral, less expensive, or functionalized (protic or Lewis basic) have been developed. In many cases, these new solvents are based on the modification of natural products. This paper is an overview of these new biorenewable RTILs.