CHEM01200604012 Dibakar Goswami - Homi Bhabha National ...

Extensive research on natural products chemistry especially with an eye to drug
development has led to the isolation of myriads of bioactive compounds and also
identification of suitable pharmacophore for their potential medicinal values. These
compounds often bear a complex structure and possess chirality. Hence, even at the height
of maturity, synthetic organic chemistry is facing the challenge to design and develop
efficient syntheses for such functionally enriched complex biologically active compounds.
This warrants facile, atom economic, high yielding and selective organic reactions. Given
the importance of stereochemistry in bio-recognition, the issue of asymmetric synthesis has
become overwhelming in modern organic synthesis. In view of these, the present work is
focused on the development of operationally simple and practically viable asymmetric
strategies that include some metal-catalyzed asymmetric routes and non-conventional
protocols, and their possible application to the enantiomeric syntheses of a few chosen bioactive
molecules. Accordingly the content of the thesis is presented in four chapters as
detailed below.
Chapter I:
Introduction to Asymmetric Synthesis
This chapter deals with broad reviews on asymmetric synthesis, 1 the major focus
of the present investigation. The salient features of the deliberation include the genesis and
importance of chirality, and different methods of enantiomeric synthesis with special
emphasis on asymmetric transformations. The aspect of using chiral compounds as
building blocks for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure compounds is discussed
subsequently. The influences of substrate, reagent, catalyst and auxiliary to direct the
asymmetric transformation have also been elaborately explained. Finally, the theoretical
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