Exploring the gold mine: [Au]-catalysed transformations of enynals, enynones and enynols

Gold catalysed synthesis of carbo-/hetero-cyclic compounds is currently a topic of intense activity thanks to the unique properties bestowed upon gold by relativistic effects, the potential of which has been realised mainly during the past two decades. This review will dwell upon the reactions involving gold catalysis in which enyn al , enyn one or enyn ol is one of the reacting partners. Most often these reactions lead to fused hetero-/homo-cycles under mild conditions with environmentally benign byproducts. Thus an opportunity for the organic community to develop new methodologies, efficient asymmetric variants, and application in total synthesis by [Au]-catalysis has emerged. This review highlights reactions of enynals, enynones and enynols using gold catalysis which often lead to cycloaddition or cyclisation products.