Synthesis of amino phosphonates is more important owing to their significant applications in the biological systems. There are few methods already known in the literature to make these molecules; however, known methods have their own disadvantages. In this regard, synthesis of different kinds of amino phosphonates have been achieved via phosphonate substituted carbene insertion into the N-H bond of aniline catalyzed by readily available copper salt under mild reaction conditions in water. In order to find an efficient catalyst for carbene insertion reaction in neat water, a large number of transition metal catalysts were screened, and we found that the [Cu(CH3CN)4]ClO4 was the best catalyst under employed reaction conditions. Using this environmentally benign methodology (copper catalyzed reaction in water), a large number of biologically important amino phosphonates have been synthesized, isolated (37 examples), and characterized using standard analytical and spectroscopic techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]