CHEM01200604012 Dibakar Goswami - Homi Bhabha National ...

conversions occurring under the chosen conditions. Even if this condition is met, the
problems associated with this are far from being fully solved. Frequently a substrate may
have multiple functional groups that react with the reagents used. Hence, the development
of efficient catalytic system for selective organic transformation is currently one of the
challenging tasks in synthetic organic chemistry. 2 This is generally achieved using metal
complexes and/ or biocatalysts that ensures higher degree of selectivity, better efficacy,
and thus, fulfills the criteria of ideal organic synthesis.
Of late, there is a paradigm shift of the perspectives of organic synthesis. For
example, the stereoisomers of a compound are now considered as separate molecular
entities with specific properties. Hence there is a great demand for developing highly
stereoselective asymmetric routes for the synthesis of the target compounds. Thus,
selectivity has become the keyword of modern organic synthesis as it provides solutions to
the above problems, besides furnishing the so-called “tailored molecules” in the most
efficient way.
Given the importance of stereoselectivity in organic synthesis, a brief account of
stereoselective asymmetric synthesis is provided in this chapter. The present work was
mainly focused on the development of operationally simple and practically viable
asymmetric strategies that include some metal-mediated routes and non-conventional
protocols, and their possible application to the homologation of (D)-mannitol derived (R) -
2,3-cyclohexylideneglyceraldehyde (1). 3
O
O
CHO
Fig. I.1.1. Structure of (R) -2,3-cyclohexylideneglyceraldehyde (1)
2