The amount of papers in the literature describing reactions catalyzedby enzymes and microorganisms as a method for obtaining enantiomericallypure compounds is increasing considerably. The usefulness of these biocatalystsin organic chemistry is now well documented and has greatly increased inthe last decade. This review describes the most relevant recent papers on the subject and also some very successful applications of the enzymesand microorganisms as biocatalysts in synthetic organic chemistry from the 1996 literature up till now