Chemistry of 4‐Hydroxy‐2‐cyclopentenone Derivatives

Abstract The 4‐hydroxy‐2‐cyclopentenone moiety is a highly valued molecular scaffold; it is bestowed with a wide‐ranging chemical reactivity profile which synthetic chemists have exploited increasingly over the last few decades. This review summarises the methods available for the preparation ofsimple building blocks which contain this core, then illustrates the diversity of chemical transformations which can be conducted with them, by highlighting applications in multi‐step syntheses of complex target molecules.