Photochemistry of acyloximes: synthesis of heterocycles and natural products

New applications of the photochemically generated iminyl radicals ring closure onto phenyl, thiophenyl, and pyridinyl rings are presented. The influence on the reactivity of different substituent throughout the acyloxime structure is discussed. Some observed effects are interpreted from computational studies. This reaction provides a new, simple, and straightforward method for the preparation of several polycyclic heteroaromatic compounds and it has been applied to the synthesis of some natural products.