Biotransformations of carbohydrates in ionic liquids

The wide use of carbohydrate-based compounds in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, detergent, and food industry has lead to the development of efficient synthetic procedures to overcome many drawbacks of conventional synthetic methodologies such as protection, activation, and deprotection steps. In this context, owing to their high chemo, regio, and stereoselectivity, enzymes offer very effective and sustainable possibilities, and thus, they are increasingly used in carbohydrate field. In addition, the combination of biocatalysis and the use of ionic liquids is becoming a real alternative, as many solvents provide interactions with enzymes improving their catalytic behavior, and they both directly contribute to increase the process sustainability. This chapter provides recent examples of the enzymatic preparation of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates using a combination of hydrolases (lipase and glycosidases) and ionic liquids.