Asymmetric Synthesis of Natural Products Ari Koskinen Department of Chemistry, University of Oulu, Finland Natural product synthesis has played a key role in the development of many synthetic methods and will continue to do so in the future. Many recent advances in such diverse fields as immunology, cellular biology and materials science have been achieved through the synthetic chemist's ability to construct often very complicated structures in one enantiomeric form. This book introduces the student to this rapidly growing field of organic chemistry. The first three chapters present the foundations of asymmetric synthesis, with Chapter 3 describing, in concise but clear rationalizations, the reasons for the major asymmetric transformations. Chapters 4 to 10 cover individual classes of natural products; their structures, biosynthesis and interrelationships as well as examples of asymmetric syntheses and the practical value of these compounds.