ABSTRACT
Electrophilic additions to alkenes are ubiquitous and at the same time invisible in much of natural product synthesis. With the exception of a few named reactions, electrophilic additions to alkenes are often utilized as a necessary step in functional group transformation to set up the key reaction-not necessarily acting as the key reaction in a total synthesis. As such, classical electrophilic additions to alkenes rarely receive attention in article abstracts or titles. This chapter deals with electrophilic additions to alkenes as used in the synthesis of natural or biologically active targets and, wherever possible, highlight their use as the key step in that synthesis.
