2004/02/25 by Anja Hoffmann‐Röder, Norbert Krause · 5 citations
Chemistry · #Catalytic Alkyne Reactions #Cyclization and Aryne Chemistry #Asymmetric Synthesis and Catalysis
paper · doi:10.1002/anie.200300628
openalex publication_date 2004/02/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Nowadays, about 150 natural products comprising an allenic or cumulenic structure are known. The chemistry of these compounds has turned out to be a very attractive and prolific area of interest: advances in the isolation and characterization of new allenic natural products have led to the establishment of efficient synthetic procedures which in many cases also open up an access to enantiomerically pure target molecules. Inspired by the intriguing biological activities of many allenic natural products, allene moieties are now systematically introduced in pharmacologically active classes of compounds (steroids, prostaglandins, amino acids, nucleosides). The functionalized allenes thus obtained often exhibit impressive activities as mechanism-based enzyme inhibitors, cytotoxic, or antiviral agents. A prerequisite for further developments in this field is the efficient stereoselective synthesis of allene derivatives.