Recent Advances in the Conversion of Carbohydrate Furanosides and Pyranosides into Carbocycles

Abstract

Replacing the oxygen atom of the sugar ring with carbon is easy on paper, but it is more difficult to carry out this transformation and form five- and six-membered carbon rings (see scheme) in the flask. Nature has found a way to perform this tandem fragmentation/cyclization reaction in a stereospecific way at neutral pH values. Human creativity and good luck have uncovered synthetic strategies which can compete efficiently with nature.