ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the development of transition metal-catalyzed microwave-assisted synthesis of bioactive heterocyclic compounds during the past decade with a few specific examples where the transition metal-catalyzed reaction under microwave heating is a key step in the heterocyclic ring formation. It highlights the importance of transition-metal-catalyzed reactions performed under microwave heating for the synthesis of nitrogen-, oxygen-, and sulfur-containing bio-relevant heterocycles. Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis (MAOS) has found widespread use in medicinal chemistry due to its ability to offer dramatic rate enhancement and significantly increase the efficiency for timely synthetic support. Pharmaceutical companies use MAOS in target discovery, high throughput screening, pharmacokinetics, and production of compound libraries. Integrating the strategies of multicomponent reactions and MAOS would be an elegant approach in organic synthesis. The conventional method of the transition metal-catalyzed synthesis of heterocycles is too slow to meet the demand for the timely supply of bioactive heterocyclic compounds, frequently in an inert atmosphere.
