Traversing the chiral pool potential of carvone in total synthesis of natural products

The chiral pool material carvone available in both enantiomer forms have been extensively used in total syntheses of various natural products. Different strategies have been developed considering the available structural features in both the enantiomers of carvone. The enone present has been remarkably used for epoxidation, conjugate addition, γ-oxygenation, reductive alkylation, etc. The six-membered ring has been contracted for arriving at the functionalized 5-membered ring moiety present in many natural products. Further, the carvone skeleton has been readily modified to advanced intermediates available for Friedel-Crafts alkylation, annulations, coupling reactions, metathesis and both inter- and intramolecular cyclizations. This review focused on various strategies developed using the carvone scaffold in total syntheses of different natural products in the period 2016 to 2023.