Glycosyl Esters as Stable Donors in Chemical Glycosylation

Abstract Efficient glycosylation methods are continuously being developed to obtain homogeneously pure carbohydrates to study their biological roles. The development of effective and stereoselective glycosylations using novel anomeric leaving groups constitutes an active area of research in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry. Although various glycosyl donors have been developed over the decades, anomeric esters as donors in glycosylation have received significant attention in recent times due to their convenience of preparation, shelf stability, catalytic activation, mild conditions, and high glycosylation efficiency. We focus in this review on several synthetic strategies for the assembly of the glycosyl ester‐containing donors utilized in chemical glycosylation methods, including simple esters, alkenyl, alkynyl‐containing esters, carbonate esters, chelation‐assisted glycosyl esters, allenyl and ynenoate glycosyl esters in glycoside synthesis are summarized.