Carbonylcarbenes in the specific synthesis of natural products

Studies on the specific synthesis of natural products and their analogues, using alkoxycarbonyl- and keto-carbenes as well as their synthetic equivalents, are surveyed. Properties of carbonylcarbenes such as cycloaddition to alkenes and reactions involving intermolecular and (especially) intramolecular insertion in C–H, N–H, and C–X (X = heteroatom) bonds have found wide scale application. These reactions permit the stereoselective and regioselective synthesis of a wide variety of carbon atom and heteroatom molecular skeletons which are difficult to obtain by other procedures.
The bibliography includes 134 references.