Stereoselective Synthesis of Enantiomerically Pure Natural Products—Estrone as Example

Natural products have been synthesized for billions of years in animals, plants, and microorganisms. As a rule they occur enantiomerically pure. Their chiral character corroborates their use in metabolism or as biologically active agents. Natural products may be insufficient in quality or quantity. They have recently begun to become accessible, either unchanged or modified, by biological synthesis; here, too, they are obtained enantiomerically pure. In the last twenty years chemical synthesis has become a major concern of organic chemists. Their target compounds are primarily enantiomerically pure natural products or biologically active variants thereof.