Recueil d1.s Truc)aux Chimiques de.
7 Pays-Bus, I12/05, Wuy 1993
R e d . Trav. Chim. Pays-Bas 112, 315-316 (1993)
Book Reviews
Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry
VOl. 3
H. Suschitzky and E.F.V. Scriven, eds.
Pergamon Press, UK 1991
ISBN 008 0405894 hard S5.00 /$95.00
ISBN 008 0405886 soft &28.00/$50.00
Volume three of this series describes heterocyclic chem-
istry published in 1990 and partly in 1989. Generally,
publications are reviewed that deal with synthlxis or reac-
tions of the heterocyclic systems, although biological activ-
ity is usually mentioned. This niakes the series extremely
useful for research workers in the pharmaceutical indus-
try.
The book consists of two review articles on heterocyclic
subjects, followed by six chapters on heterocyclic chem-
istry, arranged in increasing ring size. The firs1 chapter on
“Asymmetric Synthesis of Azetidinones” is an excellent
survey of enantioselective beta-lactam chemistry. Several
of the chiral auxiliaries described can also be applied to
the synthesis of other systems, which gives extra value to
this chapter. Chapter two: “Annelation effects in the
Thiophene Series” will be of interest to a far smaller
group of organic chemists.
Organometallic Chemistry (a unified approach) R.C.
Mehrotra and A. Singh. John Wiley, Chichester, 1991,
+
xii 634 pp., E33.95 ISBN 0-470-21019-2
This book is an introductory account to organometallic
chemistry and covers all aspects of this discipline in an
integrated manner. It is organized into seven chapters and
five appendices. The first two chapters are an introduc-
tion to the field and describe the classification, nomencla-
ture and general characteristics of organomt:tallic com-
pounds. Chapters three and four form the bulk of the text
and deal with organometallic compounds of main-group
metals and transition metals, respectively. Thl: last three
chapters describe more specific topics such as fluxionality,
synthetic and catalytic applications, and biological and
environmental aspects. As a nice feature, four of the
appendices are dedicated to Nobel lectures on organome-
tallic chemistry by K . Ziegler, G . Wilkinson, H.C. Brown
and R . Hoffmann.
This book is traditionally organized and follows the se-
quence: introduction, main-group metals, transition met-
als. The unified approach as suggested by the title is not
very obvious. The introductory chapter is rather sketchy
and imprecise and many of the features described are
repeated later in a more thorough fashion. Both chapters
on the organometallic compounds of main-group metals
and transition metals, although basically sound, suffer
The majority of the book (206 pages) deals with the
chemistry of five- and six-membered heterocycles. For
references on “Triazines, Tetrazines and Fused Ring
Polyaza Systems”, 23 pages are used. In just seven pages
of text, however, the chemistry of eight-membered and
larger rings is discussed in chapter eight. This is an
impossible task since, in principle, all macrocyclic lac-
tones, crown ethers, cryptands, etc., fall into this category.
To overcome these problems, the author mentions in the
introduction of this chapter review articles on these sub-
jects, published in 1990. Considering the wealth o f infor-
mation, the price of the book is low. It is, therefore,
suitable for all heterocyclic chemists, also because it is
sent free of charge to all members of the International
Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry (ISHC). Although it is
not critical for the quality of the scientific information,
the book would look more coherent if the different au-
thors had been asked to type their manuscripts with the
same font and linewidth and would use identical Chem-
Draw preferences for the construction of the formulae.
G.J. Koomen
University of Amsterdam
from an excessive number of examples, often presented in
the form of very crowded starburst diagrams. This, to-
gether with the rather primitive lay-out and the extremely
variable quality and style of the drawings and formulae,
detracts from its legibility. The organization of this mate-
rial is also not very efficient in that much information is
brought together in just two chapters. I t would have been
better if the authors had treated subjects such as the
cyclopentadienyl derivatives of the main-group metals and
organometallic compounds of the actinide and lanthanide
elements separately. O n the whole, the treatment of the
material is well balanced, although occasionally specific
topics (e.g., organotin chemistry, ally1 compounds) receive
more attention (and space) than others. According to the
authors, the manuscript was offered to the publishers in
1986 and apparently it has not been updated between
then and 1991, the year of publishing. This is a rather long
period in a field that is expanding and developing so
rapidly and the treatment of some subjects is somewhat
dated. For an introductory text, however, this is not a
serious handicap.
The book is relatively cheap and can be recommended to
students beginning in the field.
J. Boersma
University of Utrecht