Application in Biologically Interesting and Natural Product Syntheses

Application in Biologically Interesting and Natural Product Syntheses 11057... 

Application in Biologically interesting and Natural Product Syntheses 11059... 

Since the discovery and development of highly efficient Rh catalysts with chiral diphosphites and phosphine-phosphites in the 1990s, the enantioselectivity of asymmetric hydroformylation has reached the equivalent level to that of asymmetric hydrogenation for several substrates. Nevertheless, there still exist substrates that require even further development of more efficient chiral ligands, catalyst systems, and reaction conditions. Diastereoselective hydroformylation is expected to find many applications in the total synthesis of complex natural products as well as the syntheses of biologically active compounds of medicinal and agrochemical interests in the near future. Advances in asymmetric hydrocarboxylation has been much slower than that of asymmetric hydroformylation in spite of its high potential in the syntheses of fine chemicals. 

Diastereoselective hydroformylation will find many applications in the total synthesis of complex natural products as well as the syntheses of biologically active compounds of medicinal and agrochemical interests in the near future. The diastereoselectivity of such reactions can be improved by the use of a matched-pair combination of a chiral ligand and chirality in the substrate. 

At least one thousand publications have described the isolation or synthesis of the natural products of indole in the last decade, including many complex indole alkaloids, especially those with novel skeletons, potent biological activities, or posing synthetic challenges. Manzamine A (1) (for recent isolations see [1-8] for recent syntheses see [9-11]) and vinblastine (2) (for recent isolations see [12-17] for recent syntheses see [18-22]) (Fig. 1) are two recent typical examples of great interest for both their syntheses and biological applications. 

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