In organic chemistry, the term<unk>  (a concatenation of the terms "organic" and "catalyst") refers to a form of catalysis, whereby the rate of a chemical reaction is increased by an organic catalyst referred to as an "organocatalyst" consisting of carbon, hydrogen, sulfur and other nonmetal elements found in organic compounds 

   . Because of their similarity in composition and description, they are often mistaken as a misnomer for enzymes due to their comparable effects on reaction rates and forms of catalysis involved.
The term<unk> " was created by David MacMillan in 2000 from the old and well known concept of "organic catalysis" introduced by the German chemist Wolfgang Langenbeck;<unk> " is nothing more than a new name for an old methodology, but thus gives fresh impulses for intensive research in the following years.<unk>  which display secondary amine functionality can be described as performing either enamine catalysis (by forming catalytic quantities of an active enamine nucleophile) or iminium catalysis (by forming catalytic quantities of an activated iminium electrophile). This mechanism is typical for covalent<unk> . Covalent binding of substrate normally requires high catalyst loading (for proline-catalysis typically 20-30 mol%).
Noncovalent interactions such as hydrogen-bonding facilitates low catalyst loadings (down to 0.001 mol%).
Two main advantages of<unk>  are:
there is no need for metal-based catalysis thus making a contribution to green chemistry. In this context, simple organic acids have been used as catalyst for the modification of cellulose in water on multi-ton scale.
when the organocatalyst is chiral an avenue is opened to asymmetric catalysis, for example the use of proline in aldol reactions,
Organocatalysis
Particle therapy
Detoxification
Maggot therapy
Cytoluminescent therapy
Antifreeze
Halogenation
Foreskin restoration