The Current Status of O‐Heterocycles: A Synthetic and Medicinal Overview

O‐Heterocycles have been explored in the field of medicinal chemistry for a long time, but their significance has not been duly recognised and they are often shunned in favour of N‐heterocycles. The design of bioactive molecules for nearly every pathophysiological condition is primarily focused on novel N‐heterocycles. The main reasons for such bias include the ease of synthesis and possible mimicking of physiological molecules by N‐heterocycles. But considering only this criterion rarely provides breakthrough molecules for a given disease condition, and instead the risks of toxicity or side effects are increased with such molecules. On the other hand, owing to improved synthetic feasibility, O‐heterocycles have established themselves as equally potent lead molecules for a wide range of pathophysiological conditions. In the last decade there have been hundreds of reports validating the fact that equally potent molecules can be designed and developed by using O‐heterocycles, and these are also expected to have comparably low toxicity. Even so, researchers tend to remain biased toward the use of N‐heterocycles over O‐heterocycles. Thus, this review provides a critical analysis of the synthesis and medicinal attributes of O‐heterocycles, such as pyrones, oxazolones, furanones, oxetanes, oxazolidinones, and dioxolonones, and others, reported in the last five years, underlining the need for and the advantages guiding researchers toward them.