Publisher's Synopsis
The book gives a hitherto unavailable overview on a huge class of - so far largely neglected - natural products, characterized by one common structural element, a biaryl axis. Covering more than 1,300 references, this review mainly focuses on the isolation of these compounds from natural sources, their structural elucidation with special regard to the biaryl axis as a possible stereoelement, their biological activities, and on their biosynthetic origin. Informative summaries on stereochemical aspects connected to a stereogenic axis and on the determination of axial configurations are given, as well as some selected examples out of atroposelective total syntheses. Never has this subject been addressed in such a detailed way, especially not concerning the great variety of different structural subgroups. This book should find the way to the library of any scientist working in the field of natural product, since it provides data on an overwhelming number of naturally occurring substances.
