Download or read book Recent advances in organocatalytic cascade reactions for enantioselective synthesis of chiral spirolactone skeletons written by Jun Yang and published by OAE Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2023-02-08 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chiral spirolactones, including spiropropyllactones, spirobutyrolactones, and spirovalerolactones, are important heterocyclic frameworks that attracted the attention of organic and medicinal chemists because these motifs constitute the core structure of several natural products and bioactive molecules. The absolute configuration and the substituents on the fully substituted spirocyclic stereocenter of the lactone can potentially enhance specificity for ligand-protein binding and enhance bioavailability, potency, and metabolic stability. So, intensive attention from chemists has been paid to the synthetic methods leading to such prominent structural motifs. The synthetic methods can be divided into two main classes. The first approach takes advantage of the presence of the existing lactone structure and focuses on its functionalization. The second approach is the lactone framework constructed from various precursors in a direct spirolactonization reaction. In this review, for convenience in reading, the recent advances in the synthesis of spirolactones are summarized and discussed according to the two major organocatalytic asymmetric synthetic routes: (i) using the lactone-related frameworks as building blocks; and (ii) direct spirolactonization reaction using various reagents. This review also describes both the mechanisms and related transformations, and gives some insights into challenging issues in this research field, which will enlighten the future development of this field.