Recent Advances in Catalysis of Hantzsch and Related Synthesis of 1,4-Dihydropyridines and Polyhydroquinolines: A Brief Overview

Pharmacologically privileged 1,4-dihydropyridine (DHP) framework is a common playground of synthetic and medicinal chemists. Despite its widely general applicability popular Hantzsch methodology for the construction of this novel heterocyclic moiety suffers from limitations like long reaction time and poor yield of the product. Circumvention of these problems mainly relies on employment of a plethora of catalysis for improvement of the reaction. Objective of this mini review is to critically highlight the salient aspects of such catalysis during the past two decades.