Piancatelli rearrangement

In 1976, the Italian chemist, Giovanni Piancatelli and coworkers developed a new method to synthesize 4-hydroxycyclopentenone derivatives from 2-furylcarbinols through an acid-catalyzed rearrangement. This discovery occurred when Piancatelli was studying heterocyclic steroids and their reactive abilities in an acidic environment. As this rearrangement has continued to be studied, it has become a commonly used rearrangement in natural product synthesis because of the ability to create 4-hydroxy-5-substitutedcyclopent-2-enones. Piancatelli’s motive for looking into this new rearrangement stemmed from the ever present 3-oxycyclopentene molecule, specifically its 5-hydroxy derivative, found in biologically active natural products.