Olefin metathesis of fatty acids and vegetable oils

The article reviews various olefin metathesis reactions namely self-metathesis (SM), cross-metathesis (CM), acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization, ring closing metathesis (RCM) and ring opening metathesis (ROM) reactions for the synthesis of a variety of platform chemicals with potential industrial applications from vegetable oils and fatty acids. Different fatty acids employed for various metathesis reactions were oleic, linoleic, linolenic, eicosenoic, erucic, petroselinic, sterculic, undecenoic and ricinoleic acids, while vegetable oils used were Helianthus (sunflower), Brassica napus (rapeseed), Glycine max (soybean), Hevea brasiliensis (rubber), Butea monosperma (palash), Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) and Sterculia foetida (jangli badam). Even though Grubbs’ catalysts were employed for most of the reactions, other catalysts such as rhenium, molybdenum and tungsten based have also been used for selective reactions of vegetable oils and fatty acids. The article reviews some of the mechanistic pathways involved in the generation of unusual intermediates from fatty acids and triglycerides. Graphical Abstract Various olefin metathesis reactions namely self-metathesis (SM), crossmetathesis (CM), acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization, ring closing metathesis (RCM) and ring opening metathesis (ROM) reactions for the synthesis of a variety of platform chemicals with potential industrial applications from vegetable oils and fatty acids are discussed in this article.