Strategies in optical resolution:: a practical guide

Despite the dramatic development of enantio selective synthesis and chromatographic separation methods, resolution still remains the most inexpensive and operationally simplest method for producing pure enantiomers on a large scale. No extreme conditions or expensive reagents are required and the expensive resolving agents can be eventually recovered. This review presents guidelines for selecting the optimal method for resolving a given racemate and is based mainly on the authors long experience in the resolution of industrially important molecules. Methods for predicting the efficiency of the resolution based on the analysis of physico-chemical properties of the reactants are also described. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.