SYNTHESIS AND UTILIZATION OF HETEROMACROCYCLES.

Heteromacrocycles have been widely employed because of their unique property of forming stable complexes with a variety of molecules. Recently, new compounds have been designed to construct a rigid complex-forming cavity, such as cavitand, spherand, cryptophane, calixarene, and cucurbitril, whose syntheses and complex-forming properties are briefly discussed in this article. Moreover, the recent developments in the utilization of crown ether-type heteromacrocycles have revealed the great ability to enhance selectivity in organic and asymmetric synthesis. Biomimetic chemistry are also developed by the use of heteromacrocycles as enzyme mimics, realizing biomimetic reactions, such as acyl transfer, hydrogen transfer, and peptide synthesis.