Asymmetric Ring Closing Metathesis (ARCM)

Ring-Closing Metathesis (RCM) emerged as a pivotal transformation within the repertoire of organic chemists during the 1990s, significantly altering the way strategy of synthesis are thought and built. Notably, it was swiftly observed that RCM could take place asymmetrically, effecting the transposition of chiral information from a specific substrate location to another—sometimes distantly situated. This ingenious approach allows establishing new stereogenic centers, a feature particularly interesting to render multi-step syntheses more efficient. This innovation found particularly noteworthy application in the field of the total synthesis of natural product. Contained within this chapter is an exploration of the manifold applications of asymmetric RCM, tracing its inception from the inaugural example documented in 1995.