Chiral carbohydrate building blocks with a new perspective: Revisited

The chiral bicyclic enones, levoglucosenone, isolevoglucosenone, and new functionalized L-arabinose enone possess excellent reactivity and functionality. Their properties and application as convenient precursors in the synthesis of many attractive templates or intermediates of complex natural products are reviewed. These compounds are attracting increasing interest due to their structural rigidity and ability for stereoselective functionalization. without protection, deprotection sequences necessary in many synthetic organic methodologies.