Exploiting Ruthenium Carbene-Catalyzed Reactions in Total Synthesis of Marine Oxacyclic Natural Products

Olefin metathesis has emerged as an indispensable means to create complex natural products by the virtue of its powerful carbon–carbon bond-forming ability, compatibility with a range of functional groups, and ready availability of highly reactive ruthenium carbene catalysts. Furthermore, Grubbs-type ruthenium carbene complexes originally developed for olefin metathesis reactions also mediate a variety of non-metathetic reactions and found their use in tandem metathetic/non-metathetic processes. This account summarizes our recent efforts on total synthesis of oxacyclic natural products by means of ruthenium carbene-catalyzed reactions.