Total syntheses of carbohydrates: organocatalyzed aldol additions of dihydroxyacetone

The selective total synthesis of carbohydrates with defined configuration has been of great interest for a long time. This field has been the domain of enzymatic methods so far. But now the recent development of several organocatalyzed aldol methodologies has made a selective synthetic approach to configuratively defined carbohydrates possible. This development and different strategies will be discussed in this concept article.