Screening of a selection of commercially available homogeneous Ru-catalysts in valuable olefin metathesis transformations

A library of thirteen different commercially available Ru-based catalysts was evaluated in valuable metathesis reactions for the production of fragrance and bioactive molecule precursors. Rigorous library screening clearly illustrated the different catalytic behaviour of the catalyst selection and highlighted its significant advantage to provide efficiency in specific metathesis applications. Interestingly, this strategy offered substantial improvement over the state of the art, with the efficient synthesis of the macrocyclic Exaltolide 2 at low catalyst loading and dilution conditions.