The Synthesis of Aromatic Heterocycles from Propargylic Compounds

It is well known that the aromatic heterocyclic compounds are the most ubiquitous motifs and are found in many natural products and pharmaceuticals that exhibit remarkable biological activities. Significant effort continues to be given to the development of new methods for their construction. Although a number of methods have been established to construct these compounds, the development of novel methods that allow the facile assembly of substituted heterocycles from readily available starting materials remains an important objective. In recent years, propargylic compounds that contain many reactive centers have attracted a lot of attention for their various transformations. Chemists have conducted a detailed investigation of their cyclization with nucleophiles. The cyclization of propargylic compounds with a variety of nucleophiles is a very efficient method for producing furans, pyrroles, thiazoles, indoles, imidazoles, indolizines, oxazoles, pyridines, quinolines, thiophenes, and so on. In this review, we highlight the substantial progress that has been made in this area between 2000 and mid-2012, and give examples of the reactions of propargylic compounds with a variety of substrates to produce heterocycles.