Julia-Kocienski Olefination in the Synthesis of Trisubstituted Alkenes: Recent Progress

Julia-Kocienski olefination, a coupling reaction between a carbonyl component and a sulfone partner, has emerged as a powerful synthetic tool in the preparation of several organic compounds. A number of interesting examples involving particularly the preparation of trisubstituted alkenes along with important observations regarding the stereoselectivity of those reactions have been recently reported. This reviewing work covers the literature for the period 2016–2022 and describes in a comprehensive way the progress and developments of Julia-Kocienski olefination application in the synthesis of trisubstituted alkenes which serve as precursors of natural products and their analogs as well of pharmaceutically interesting/biologically important compounds. Moreover, key methodology results dealing with the investigation of the optimum conditions and stereoselectivities and new modifications and approaches are discussed.