Heterocycles as Key Substrates in Multicomponent Reactions: The Fast Lane towards Molecular Complexity

Abstract

Abstract Heterocycles display an intrinsic reactivity which enables rich, versatile and productive transformations. Taking into account their ubiquitous presence in natural products and drugs, the development of new, fast and efficient preparative protocols for these structures remains an urgent task in Organic Synthesis. Multicomponent reactions using heterocyclic chemistry offer new possibilities to exploit this exclusive reactivity. Recent results show relevant examples of such transformations. Several approaches which allow the construction of complex heterocyclic compounds from simple starting materials using this principle have been analyzed.