Abstract

The aldol addition of active methylene compounds has been shown to be an important challenge for current organic chemistry, even if the aldol adducts can be particularly useful in the synthesis of complex valuable molecules. Starting from the early unsuccessful attempts employing “standard” methodologies, this review describes the most recent successful one-pot multicomponent procedures and the first examples of synthesis of valuable compounds, both cyclic and acyclic.

Keywords: Aldol reactions, Active methylene compounds, Multi-component reactions, Tandem reactions, Heterocyclic compounds, Organocatalysis, Metal catalysts