Recent applications of olefin metathesis and related reactions in carbohydrate chemistry

The potential use of olefin metathesis reactions in carbohydrate chemistry is discussed. In recent years, the use of olefin metathesis reactions for the construction of carbon--carbon bonds has significantly expanded with the development of efficient and well-defined catalytic systems (1-7). These catalytic systems have found extensive use through cross-metathesis, ring-closing metathesis and ring-opening metathesis reactions for the syntheses of many carbohydrate-containing natural products. In some cases it has been shown that carbohydrate molecules can be synthesized from non-carbohydrate precursors using this simple but efficient procedure.