The enantioselective synthesis of conformationally constrained cyclic β-amino acids

Enantiomerically pure and conformationally constrained cyclic β-amino acids have been the subject of a vast amount of research across the chemical, biological, and medicinal disciplines. These valuable molecules are synthetic precursors for a wide variety of useful compounds that include natural products and modified peptides. Many methods have been developed to prepare chiral cyclic β-amino acids in high optical purity. This mini-review will discuss some of the most recent and successful approaches.