Recent Achievement in the Synthesis of Imidazoles

Abstract: Imidazole derivatives, which belong to 1,3-diazole family, have two nitrogen atoms at 1 and 3 positions in the aromatic ring. Imidazole derivatives diversely appear both in nature and synthetic sources. Some natural imidazoles play important roles in human life such as histidine, histamine and biotin. Imidazole-based compounds possess a wide range of bioactivities such as those including antimicrobial, anticancer, antiparasitic, antihypertensive, antineuropathic and anti-inflammatory activities. Many compounds with imidazole skeleton have been marketed as drugs in the market. The synthesis of imidazole derivatives has drawn great attention of chemists and numerous articles on the synthesis of this class of heterocyclic compound have been reported over the years. In this article, we will give a comprehensive review on the synthesis of imidazoles which date back to 2013. In this articles, 182 studies on the synthesis of imidazoles are summerized. The Debus–Radziszewski imidazole synthesis have still recceived great attention of chemists and many articles have been published recently. Besides, a huge number of novel methods have also developed. We have also tried to describe reaction mechanisms as much as we can. The work might be useful for chemists who are involved in the synthesis of heterocycles or drug chemistry.