Ether-protecting functions at C-2 hydroxy groups have been found to play participating roles in glycosylations when the reactions are conducted in nitrile solvent mixtures. The participation mechanism is based on intramolecular interaction between the lone electron pair of the oxygen atom of the C-2 ether function and the nitrile molecule when they are positioned in a cis configuration. A 1,2-cis glycosyl oxazolinium intermediate is formed. This participation, in conjunction with the anomeric effect of the glycosyl donor, confers high 1,2-trans selectivities on glycosylations. Further application of this concept has led to efficient preparations of α-(1→5)-arabinan oligomers.

The major challenge in carbohydrate synthesis is stereochemical control of glycosidic bond formation. Different glycosylation methods have been developed that are based on the modulation effect of external nucleophiles. This review highlights the development, synthetic application, challenges and outlook of the modulated glycosylation methods.

A general and stereospecific homologation strategy for the synthesis of heptopyranosides is reported. The strategy employs the Wittig olefination and proline-catalyzed α-aminoxylation to achieve one carbon elongation and stereoselective hydroxylation at the C6 position, respectively. The L-glycero- and D-glycero-heptopyranosides can be obtained with nearly perfect stereoselectivity. Further study reveals the difference in the chemical shift of the C6 proton of L/D-glycero-heptopyranosyl diastereomers, which is found to be useful for assignment of the configuration of heptopyranosides.

A general strategy for the synthesis of phenylethanoid glycosides (PhG) including echinacoside 1, acteoside 2, calceolarioside-A 3 and calceolarioside-B 4 is reported. The strategy features the application of low substrate concentration glycosylation and N-formyl morpholine modulated glycosylation methods for the construction of 1,2-trans β- and α-glycosidic bonds. The reported strategy does not invoke the use of the participatory acyl protecting function, which is incompatible with the ester function present in target PhG compounds. A preliminary study of the anti-proliferation properties of the PhG compounds 1–4 was performed; the acteoside 2 exhibited the best inhibition on the prostatic cancer cell proliferation.

Based on the combined use of dimethyl-A C H T U N G T R E N N U N G formamide (DMF) modulation and neighboring group participation, three iterative one-pot a-glycosylation methods, i.e., one-pot (a,a)-, one-pot (b,a)-, and one-pot (a,b)-glycosylations, were developed. These methods are applicable to a range of thioglycosyl donors, confer stereocontrol in a-/b-glycosidic bond formation, and thus provide for rapid access to oligosaccharides with various permutations of anomeric configurations. The utility of these one-pot glycosylation methods is demonstrated in the synthesis of eight non-natural and natural oligosaccharide targets, including the core 1 serine conjugate, core 8