Current status and future perspectives of cyclohexadiene-cis-diols in organic synthesis: versatile intermediates in the concise design of natural products

The cyclohexadiene-cis-diols are a group of chiral synthons valuable in the synthesis of a diverse range of natural products and molecules of biological interest as well as in the development of concise and fully general methodologies for entire groups of organic molecules. Below, the authors briefly summarize the history of these synthons and project future trends in the field. At a time when brevity, enantiocontrol, efficiency and environmental concerns are of prime importance in an ever demanding discipline, the enzymatically produced cis-diols offer the organic chemist one possible method of realizing these goals.