2.16 Selected Diastereoselective Reactions: Free Radical Additions and Cyclizations

This chapter reviews recent developments and applications of radical chemistry for the diastereoselective synthesis of key fragments or templates found in natural products. Although nonexhaustive, this report highlights the effectiveness and versatility of radical processes, which can be performed under mild conditions compatible with a broad range of functional groups. The second section presents general concepts regarding free radical-chains generation and reactivity. The two following sections, subdivided according to the nature of the substrate or the type of radical process, report inter- and intramolecular reactions with examples of elegant and innovative approaches toward structurally diverse targets (e.g., acyclic or cyclic molecules).