More Dead Ends and Detours En Route to Successful Total Synthesis

A must-have textbook for masters and PhD students in organic chemistry and researchers in the pharmaceutical industry who want to improve their own chemical reaction planning to succeed in natural product total synthesis.

Miguel A. Sierra studied chemistry at the UCM (Madrid), receiving his PhD in 1987, after which he was appointed Assistant Professor. After a postdoctoral stay at Colorado State University under Louis Hegedus, he returned to Madrid where he became a professor in 1990. His research encompasses the development of new processes based on transition-metal complexes, the preparation of new bioorganometallic compounds tailor-made for specific applications in crop protection, and the study of environmental organic processes. Professor Sierra is the secretary of the Madrid regional division of the Spanish Chemical Society and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He has published 140 scientific articles, 4 books and 5 patents.


Maria C. de la Torre studied chemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) where she received her PhD in 1986. After postdoctoral work at Imperial College under Steven Ley and Colorado State University under Albert Meyers, she returned to Madrid in 1989 as a scientific researcher at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient?ficas. At present she is a staff member of the Synthesis, Structure and Properties of Organic Compounds Department, at the Instituto de Qu?mica Org?nica General (IQOG). Her current research interests focus on the chemistry of densely functionalized natural products, and the preparation of natural product hybrids with mixed and/or complementary biological properties.


Fernando P. Coss?o studied Chemical Science at the University of Zaragoza and went on to receive a PhD in 1986 at the UPV/EHU Basque University. He has spent post-doctoral fellowships at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS, in Talence (France) and at the University of California Los Angeles. He became an Associate Professor at the UPV/EHU Faculty of Chemistry in 1988 and a full Professor of this faculty in 2002. He has occupied a number of posts, such as the vice-chancellor of Research and International Relations at the UPV/EHU (2001-2004), Secretary of the Committee of Experimental Sciences of UNIQUAL (2007-2009), and Chairman of the Ikerbasque Executive Committee (2009).

Introduction: From the Blackboard to the Laboratory
IS THERE YET TROUBLE WITH CLASSICAL SYNTHETIC REACTIONS?
The Diels-Alder Reaction
The Aldol Condensation
The Michael Addition
Radical Cyclizations
Oxidation and Reductions
PROTECTING AND ACTIVATING GROUPS: STILL TROUBLESOME?
Protecting Groups
Activating Groups
HOW EFFICIENT ARE METAL-MEDIATED SYNTHETIC STEPS?
Metal-Mediated Couplings
Ring-Closing Metathesis
Carbocyclization Reactions
Asymmetric Catalysis