Synthesis of acylnitroso intermediates and their synthetic applications

Acylnitroso intermediates are usually known as super reactive species, always prepared in situ and can be readily trapped via hetero-Diels-Alder reactions with dienes or with olefins via ene reactions, which open a magnificent access to produce a variety of complicated and very demanding organic molecules. Both of these reactions of acylnitroso species have been proved as the key synthetic tool in the total synthesis of natural products. The synthetic methods used to prepare these intermediates as well as their recent synthetic applications to the total synthesis of natural products are briefly described in this minireview.