Herein, we present a green methodology for the reduction of ferrocene-derived aldehydes and ketones to their respective alcohols, employing ammonia borane as the reducing agent and neat water as the solvent. We also report the deoxygenation of the same precursors to the corresponding alkyl ferrocenes when reactions are performed under solvent-free conditions. Both methods, applicable to various carbonyl derivatives of ferrocene, give product yields in the range of 40–95 % and, in most cases, a product purification that does not require column chromatography. The investigation for the deoxygenation of alkyl derivatives was extended to the cobalt sandwich compound –[(COCH3)C5H4]Co(η4-C4Ph4) and ketone derivatives of ruthenocene as well. Ammonia borane has also been found to be useful as a convenient reducing reagent for the selective reduction of ferrocenium compounds to their respective ferrocene derivatives at room temperature in water medium. Control experiments have been carried out to explore the mechanistic details of these reactions.