Organic azides are placed in the interphase between chemistry, biology, medicine, and materials science. Their uses in peptide chemistry, combinatorial chemistry, and the synthesis of heterocycles are extensively explored. In this review, the focus is placed on the azidoreductive cyclization of azides and detailed its significant insights. The wide-ranging literature for synthesizing various heterocycles, employing chemoselective and straightforward protocols for azido-reduction with concomitant intramolecular cyclization, has been elaborated. In due course, the azido-reductive cyclization strategy witnessed the synthesis of essential heterocycles, such as benzodiazepine, quinazolinone, piperidine, pyrrole and their derivatives. In addition, the review includes application of azido-reductive cyclization strategies towards the synthesis of various iminosugars, drugs/APIs, and natural products embedding such heterocycles.
Keywords: Aza-sugars, azido-reductive cyclization, benzodiazepines, lactams, pyrroles, quinazolinones.