Polyethylene glycol (PEG) in water is found to be an inexpensive, non-toxic and eco-friendly reaction medium for the nucleophilic addition of trimethylsilyl cyanide (TMSCN) to imines (Strecker reaction) to afford alpha-aminonitriles in excellent yields. This protocol is effective to a wide variety of substrates with different functional groups and does not require the use of acid or base catalyst. PEG can be recovered and reused. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.