Synthesis of C-saccharides and higher congeners

This work reviews the synthesis of a class of stable sugar mimics termed, C-saccharides. These compounds are stable analogs of the corresponding O-saccharides in which the interglycosidic oxygen has been replaced by a carbon atom. For the most part, this review focuses on the synthesis of C-disaccharides. The organization is based on the type of chemistry used to assemble the target and has the following sub-sections: sigmatropic approaches, synthesis based on the cationic reactivity of the anomeric carbon atom, metal-mediated processes, cyclization methodology, processes based on anionic chemistry and methods based on free radical chemistry.