Dear organic chemistry peeps - today I am telling you the tale of the Ginkgo tree and dissect three different total syntheses of Bilobalide, a potential "anti-almost everything" molecule from the Ginkgo biloba tree (time-stamps below).

Even if you are not deeply engaged with total synthesis, I am confident that this video will enrich your understanding of chemistry and natural products to some degree.

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00:00 Introduction
00:56 Pls sub thx
01:25 Ginkgo biloba facts and biology
05:58 Corey's synthesis
10:06 Crimmins' synthesis
15:57 Ohtawa's and Shenvi's synthesis

Key papers:
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/...
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/...
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158... free access on ChemRxiv: https://chemrxiv.org/articles/preprin...

Some recommended books on organic synthesis:
- Clayden, Greeves, Warren; Organic Chemistry (basic organic chemistry knowledge)
- Wyatt, Warren; Organic Synthesis: The Disconnection Approach (excellent introduction to retrosynthesis)
- Kurti, Czako; Strategic Applications of Named Reactions in Organic Synthesis (extensive toolkit of functional group reactions and applications thereof with common conditions)
- Nicolaou et al; Classics in Total Synthesis 1-3 (the ultimate total synthesis trilogy)
- Nicolaou; Molecules That Changed the World (the world's most important molecules and their impact on everyday life)
- Carreira, Kvaerno; Classics in Stereoselective Synthesis (compilation of the groundbreaking methods of stereoselective synthesis and application to synthesis of stereochemically complex structures)