Terpenes and other polycycles are very common in nature and as many are biologically active, have been a key target for synthetic organic chemists. Rama Heng and Samir Zard from Ecole Polytechnique in France have demonstrated a general approach to polycyclic structures featuring the direct formation of six-, seven-, and eight-membered rings. This very powerful, yet concise and highly flexible, approach to both fused and bridged polycyclic structures overcomes the limitations imposed by intrinsically slow radical transformations, opening numerous synthetic opportunities. Our referees were very enthusiastic about this paper and we think you will be too – expect to see more about this exciting new method!
This HOT article is available free until 21st April 2011! Read it today in OBC.
A flexible, unified radical-based approach to polycyclic structures
Rama Heng and Samir Z. Zard
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1OB00024A
