Oxidative Semisynthesis of Natural Products with DMDO

This review depicts in a concise way the oxidation reactions (C-H, double bond and oxidative cleavage) in natural products. The introduction of oxygen atom in natural products is an improved strategy to achieve pharmacologically active molecules or their synthetic analogues. Natural products are considered most intriguing skeletons to be synthesized in the laboratory mainly because they are blessed with multifunctional groups in one entity. The presence of more than one functional group in the molecules provokes the daunting tasks such as functional group tolerance and regio- or chemo-selectivity. Oxidation reaction is one of the widely exercised reactions in natural products chemistry as it renders the formation of new derivatives or analogues just by insertion of oxygen atom. Over the past decades, several oxidants have been reported but among all, the oxidant dimethyldioxirane (DMDO) holds great promise as it is attributed with mild reactivity, high functional group tolerance, excellent chemo- and regio-selectivity, ecofriendly and is easy to use and prepare, so these fascinating features provide immense incentive to natural product chemist to insert oxygen atom with great ease in natural products. Keywords: Natural products, DMDO, oxygen atom introduction, oxidation, dimethyldioxirane, oxidant.