In this second edition of the handbook the amount of data has doubled and will be published in 39 volumes plus synonym index. The concise and complete work describes around 5,000 enzymes which are sufficiently well characterized as well as their application in analytical, synthetic and biotechnology processes,in the food industry, and for medicinal treatments. Data sheets are arranged in their EC number sequence.


There exist about 25,000 synonyms for the 4,400 enzymes which are classified until 2001. This Synonym Index helps in finding the recommended name for a given enzyme. It is also correlated with the EC number and the volume and page number of the corresponding place in the Handbook.