Abstract

Imidazoles are a fascinating group of heterocyclic molecules with varying biological properties. Additionally, they form the nucleus of several commercial drugs. In this review, we describe the history of imidazoles from their discovery to their structural determination. We show that different synthetic methodologies are found in the literature. However, this review focuses on the evolution of the Radziszewski reaction used to synthesise tri- and tetra- substituted imidazoles, the different modifications of this reaction and the utilisation of new tools to construct these compounds. This review as a whole demonstrates the importance of a reaction that is over one century old and is still better than the newer alternatives.

Keywords: Aldehydes, benzyl, glyoxaline heterocycles, imidazoles, radziszewski reaction.

Graphical Abstract