Abstract

The Barton-McCombie reaction (B-M reaction) is deoxygenation of aliphatic alcohols via thioacylation followed by a radical cleavage. Variations of the reactions may utilize different thioacyl fragments and hydrogen sources. In this review article, however, we have focused on the applications of this reaction as a mild and functional group tolerant method in deoxygenation step in total syntheses of some well recognized natural products.

Keywords: Barton-McCombie reaction, deoxygenation, free-radical reaction, hydroxyl group, natural product, tin hydrid, total syntheses, xanthate.

Graphical Abstract