| Abstract: | Thermal cyclizations of appropriate dienes, enynes and related unsaturated systems, some of them carried out on an industrial scale, demonstrate increasingly the preparative power of the intramolecular ene reaction. A variety of substituted, fused and bridged ring systems, including natural products, are thus easily accessible in a regio- and stereo-selective manner. Numerous examples are discussed systematically illustrating the possibilities, limitations, and common features of this cyclization reaction and its reverse ring-opening process. |
