3-Nitrochromenes in the synthesis of fused- and spiro scaffolds: Recent progress

Abstract

The chromene core is one of the most privileged heterocyclic rings, which not only exists in natural products, but also found in synthetic compounds with remarkable biological activities. Especially, 3-nitrochromenes represent an important class of organic compounds because of their easy availability and versatile reactivity for the construction of complex molecular architectures. The present review emphasizes recent advances (2017–2021) in the synthesis of various fused- and spiro scaffolds involving 3-nitrochromene derivatives. In this context, regio- and stereoselective formation of important heterocyclic skeletons are discussed highlighting their reaction mechanism. Interestingly, spiro-chromeno heterocycles have been accomplished based on multicomponent reaction (MCR) strategy. Some of the synthesized compounds exhibit promising biological profile including anticancer activity.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Fused-/spiro scaffolds
• heterocycles
• 3-nitrochromenes
• stereoselective
• synthesis

Acknowledgements

The laboratory facility of R. B. C. College for Women, Naihati, India is gratefully acknowledged. We would like to thank the authors of the papers collected here for their hard work that made this review possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).