Catalysis is a pillar of green chemistry. Though there are many efficient catalysts reported, industrial engineers are now faced with the challenge of designing environmentally benign catalysts, which have a high reaction rate, can be recovered efficiently, and are biodegradable and cost-effective. Here we review food additives as catalysts in organic syntheses. Natural food additives offer a fruitful approach in implementing green chemistry, resulting in comparable reaction yields to conventional catalysts. We present the advantages of organic reactions performed using these green and efficient catalysts. In addition, reactions’ yields are compared to various synthetic methods. Finally, we discuss the turn-over number, turn-over frequency and reaction mechanisms of selected organic reactions mediated by these catalysts.

催化是绿色化学的基础。尽管报道了许多有效的催化剂，但是工业工程师现在面临设计具有环境友好性的催化剂的挑战，该催化剂具有高的反应速率，可以被有效地回收，并且是可生物降解的和成本有效的。在这里，我们回顾了食品添加剂在有机合成中的催化作用。天然食品添加剂为实施绿色化学方法提供了卓有成效的方法，从而产生了与传统催化剂相当的反应产率。我们展示了使用这些绿色高效催化剂进行有机反应的优势。此外，将反应的收率与各种合成方法进行了比较。最后，我们讨论了由这些催化剂介导的所选有机反应的周转数，周转频率和反应机理。