Heterocycles in Biochemistry Heterocyclic Natural Products

Other innovations in this fifth edition are discussions in Chapter 5 of the modem techniques of (i) solid-phase chemistry, (ii) microwave heating and (iii) flow reactors in the heterocyclic context. Reflecting the large part that heterocyclic chemistry plays in the pharmaceutical industry, there are entirely new chapters that deal with Heterocycles in Medicine (Chapter 33) and Heterocycles in Biochemistry Heterocyclic Natural Products (Chapter 32). 

Among the heterocyclic dienamines dihydropyridines are a very important class of compounds. Dihydropyridines play an essential role in biochemistry and they have many applications in pharmacology. They are indispensable intermediates in the synthesis of natural products, mainly alkaloids555-558. These aspects as well as the preparation of dihydropyridines were dealt with exhaustively in several recent reviews559-562. 

Glycosides are compounds in which the substituent is bound to the anomeric carbon. This group comprises numerous natural products the primary metabolites. The most important are nucleosides, the basic structural units from which nucleotides and nucleic acids are formed. The monosaccharide component of the nucleoside is D-ribose or its partially reduced form D-deoxyribose. In biochemistry and molecular biology the most important are the nucleosides in which ribose is bonded to heterocyclic molecules called nucleic bases. The most common nucleic bases are pyrimidines and purines. 

---