Designing reactions in aqueous media has been one of the major challenges in modern organic synthesis, especially to avoid the use of large amounts of organic solvents whose disposal is a matter of grave concern from an environmental perspective. The oxidation of alcohols and amines is an essential and important step in the synthesis of many valuable products including polymers and pharmaceuticals. In recent times, there has been a surge in the use of water as a solvent in many organic reactions. This review focuses specifically on the oxidation reactions of alcohols and amines carried out in water media using transition metal catalysts, metal‐free catalysts and photocatalysts.

A water‐soluble bifunctional, bistate ruthenium catalyst has been developed using the 8‐aminoquinoline ligand which responds to an acid‐base stimuli and is catalytically active for two complementary reactions. The “Ru‐amino state” is highly active for catalytic transfer hydrogenation of various aldehydes using formic acid as the hydrogen source resulting in a range of primary alcohols. On the other hand, the “Ru‐amido state” is active for the acceptorless dehydrogenation of alcohols to yield carboxylate salts or ketones. The reactions can be carried out in air without an inert atmosphere and the products can be purified by simple extraction without the use of any chromatographic techniques. A range of functional groups which include electron‐rich and deficient (hetero)arenes and alkenes, alkynes, halides, esters, cyano, and nitro groups, are all well tolerated, indicating excellent chemoselectivity for transfer hydrogenation.