Oxetanes as versatile building blocks in the total synthesis of natural products: An overview

Oxetane ring plays an important role as main core in naturally occurring compounds and has many applications in pharmaceutical industries and synthetic organic chemistry. In this review, we report a brief survey of using the oxetane ring as versatile precursors in the total synthesis of natural products. Many approaches such as cyclization, addition, oxidation, reduction, elimination, protection as well as deprotection reactions utilized to synthesize of most important oxetane-containing natural products involving taxol, (±)-merrilactone A, (±)-oxetin, L-oxetanocin, (+)-( Z )-laureatin and L-oxetanocin are also covered. We describe in this review the most common total synthesis approaches have been yet applied to synthesis of most important oxetane-containing natural products. The review is also included isolation, structure Identification of these oxetane-containing natural products. The biological activity of oxetane-containing natural products due to the oxetane ring is also defined.