Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 5, Issue 6, 2001

The well-known antimalarial properties of naturally occurring cyclic peroxides artemisinin (qinghaosu), yingzhaosu A and yingzhaosu C have stimulated the development of new strategies for the synthesis of cyclic peroxides with diverse structures, and the investigation of the chemical transformations and properties of such compounds. In this review, recent progress in the chemistry of mono- and polycyclic organic per Read More

Zaragozic acids (or squalestatins) are very potent inhibitors of squalene synthase. They or simpler analogs have potential as drugs for lowering the endogenous level of cholesterol in human serum. These compounds are Ras farnesyltransferase inhibitors and might become antitumor drugs. They are also antifungal agents. This account presents synthetic studies subsequent to those reviewed by Nadin and Nicolaou (1). A wea Read More

Recent developments in metallosalen-catalyzed asymmetric oxidation, namely, the epoxidation of simple olefins and the desymmetrization of meso-tetrahydrofurans by using second-generation metallosalen complexes are discussed. As an alternative approach, the enantiospecific ring-enlargement of oxetanes for preparing optically active tetrahydrofurans is also described.Oxygen heterocycles such as epoxides and tet Read More

alpha,beta-Unsaturated gama-lactones with an alkylidene substituent in the gama-position (“gama-alkylidenebutenolides”) are well-known natural products. They vary in complexity from gama-methylenebutenolide, which is an antibiotic, to peridinin, which is an important pigment for light-harvesting in the ocean. A distinct sub-class within the gama-alkylidenebutenolides consists of the pulvinones and pulvinic acids, which a Read More