Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 15, Issue 5, 2011

When my proposal of a special issue entitled “Recent Progress in the Synthesis and Applications of Cyclic Compounds” for Current Organic Chemistry was approved by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal in February 2009, I was very happy to start the edition of this special issue that I immediately released a call for manuscripts on my laboratory's website (http://chem.tsinghua.edu.cn/huarm/) and sent about 30 invitati Read More

This review overviews the advances in the chemistry of bismuth-containing heterocyclic compounds during the last decade. Some new types of bismuth-containing heterocyclic systems containing nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and/or phosphorus in addition to bismuth have been synthesized. 5,6,7,12-Tetrahydrodibenz[c,f][1,5]azabismocine derivatives were the most extensively studied bismuthcontaining heterocyclic compoun Read More

As an abundant, nontoxic, nonflammable, easily available, and renewable carbon resource, carbon dioxide is very attractive as an environmentally friendly feedstock for making commodity chemicals, fuels, and materials. Owing to its kinetic and thermodynamic stability, significant efforts have been directed towards constructing C-C, C-O and C-N bond on the basis of CO2 activation through molecular catalysis. Development of c Read More

This review aims at giving a brief summary on the preparation of three and four membered heterocycles laying particular emphasis on the various green approaches for the synthesis of substituted aziridines, thiiranes, β-lactams, diones and thietanes. The review presents the result of our literature survey of the work done in recent years on the use of solid support catalyzed reaction and more environmentally benign appr Read More

Pyrazole is the ubiquitous sub-structure of many natural products and biologically active compounds. In this respect, its regioselective synthesis drew a lot of attention from synthetic organic chemists, leading to the development of various regioselective modifications of the classical Knorr cyclocondensation reaction and alternative methods. This review covers the period of 2003 to the middle of 2009 on the regioselective s Read More

The reactive thiocarbonyl ylides belong to the less well-known class of the so-called ‘sulfur-centered 1,3-dipoles’. Only in recent years have the [2+3] cycloadditions with thiocarbonyl ylides been extensively explored, mainly as a useful method for the synthesis of three- and five-membered sulfur heterocycles. The goal of the present review is to demonstrate the potential of the 1,5-dipolar electrocyclization of properly substi Read More

Five-membered heterocycles are very important from the synthetic aspect because of their enormous pharmacological applications. Several new reagents, substrates and methods are being developed every year to facilitate their synthesis. This review is an effort to sum up the methods recently utilized in the synthesis of this important group of heterocycles.

Recent advances on the synthesis of six-membered carbo- and heterocyclic compounds including functionalized benzenes, 1,3- cyclohexadienes, pyridines, pyridones, pyranones, coumarins and isocoumarins via the cycloaddition reaction of alkynes are reviewed. Special attention is paid to atom-economic controllable chemo- and regioselective reactions, which are currently extremely attractive methodologies in organic synthesis.

Recent studies have centred on 1,2-diazines derivatives, which proved to be invaluable materials in the fields of medicine, opto-electronics and agriculture. 1,2-diazines were found to have pharmaceutical applications including a wide range of biological activities, such as antiviral and anticancer, antituberculosis, antimicrobials, antifungus, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive, diuretics, antithrombics, anticoagulants, an Read More

Recent progress in the synthesis and use of enaminonitriles as precursors for carbocyclic and heterocyclic compounds is reviewed. The synthetic routes for preparation of enaminonitriles are based on addition and condensation reactions. Enaminonitriles can be used as building blocks for carbocyclic, five, six, and seven-membered heterocycles as well as fused heterocyclic compounds. Biological and industrial applications Read More

The prevalence of isocoumarins in numerous natural products that exhibit a wide range of biological activities has generated a continued and enormous interest among synthetic and medicinal chemists. The isocoumarin framework represents one of the privileged structures for the development of natural product-inspired compounds of potential biological interest. Considerable efforts have been devoted towards th Read More