ABSTRACT
The current worldwide tendency toward sustainable development calls for the improvement of ecological characteristics of synthetic processes. An important requirement is ecological purity of the process, implying the use of recyclable raw materials and safe technological methods, higher process selectivity and lower energy consumption per unit end product, as well as recuperation and safe utilization of the catalysts used and by-products. These requirements are met by the use of organized media (clays, zeolites) in various fields of organic synthesis and especially in the chemistry of terpenoids, which are accessible recyclable biologically active compounds possessing a unique structure. Using organized media improves the ecological characteristics of well-known processes involving natural compounds and leads to unusual transformations and hence new applications of recyclable raw materials to fine organic synthesis due to the unique properties of terpenoids such as the conformational mobility and multifunctionality. The rate ratio between the competing reactions in organized media may be changed by varying the statistical and concentration factors and/or due to the relative changes in the activation barriers of possible transformations compared to homogeneous media.
