Following the Lead from Nature: Divergent Pathways in Natural Product Synthesis and Diversity‐Oriented Synthesis

This microreview discusses recent efforts in chemical synthesis to design divergent pathways either to access diverse natural products from a common intermediate or to produce diverse libraries of compounds reminiscent of natural products. These efforts are generally based on the development and use of powerful complexity‐generating reactions and cascade reactions. A panel of eighteen examples is used to illustrate different strategies.