Recent Advances in the Total Synthesis of Chlorosulfolipids (Eur. J. Org. Chem. 9/2012)

The cover picture shows a painting of Philippus von Hohenheim, also known as Paracelsus, by the Flemish painter Quentin Massys (1466–1529). Paracelsus (1493–1541) was the first to note that the dose alone makes a substance a poison. Little is known about the biology, the biochemistry and, importantly, the toxicology of chlorosulfolipids, which constitute a class of polychlorinated natural products that are originally produced by certain fresh‐ and seawater microalgae species and that have been detected in and isolated from certain edible mussels. To date, the lack of sufficient material has hampered in‐depth studies to address these issues. Details are presented in the Microreview by C. Nilewski and E. M. Carreira on p. 1685 ff, which summarizes the impressive progress made in the total synthesis of the chlorosulfolipids in recent years, which in turn should enable approaches that address numerous interdisciplinary questions.