The protection of carbonyl compounds plays an important role during multistep syntheses in organic, medicinal, carbohydrate, and drug design chemistry. Among various carbonyl protecting groups, 1,3-oxathiolane, 1,3-dioxolane, 1,3- dithiolane are important because of their stability and the preparation ease. This review summarizes and highlights methods for the synthesis of S,O-, O,O- and S,S-cyclic acetals based on transformations of α,β-enals.
Keywords: 1, 3-dioxolane, 1, 3-dithiolane, carbonyl compounds, cyclic acetals, 1, 3-oxathiolane, α, β-Unsaturated aldehydes.