Aldol Reactions provides a comprehensive up-to-date overview of aldol reactions including application of different metal enolates; catalytic aldol additions catalyzed by different Lewis acids and Lewis bases; enantioselective direct aldol additions; antibodies and enzyme catalyzed aldol additions and the recent aggressive development of organocatalyzed aldol additions.
The power of each method is demonstrated by several applications in total synthesis of natural products. The pros and cons of these methodologies with regard to stereoselectivity, regioselectivity and application in total synthesis of natural products are discussed. Great importance is set to the diverse possibilities of the manual of aldol reaction to install required configurations in complicated natural product synthesis.