1 General Aspects of the Glycosidic Bond Formation

Since the first attempts at the turn of the twentieth century, enormous progress has been made in the area of the chemical synthesis of O-glycosides. However, it was only in the past two decades that the scientific world had witnessed a dramatic improvement the methods used for chemical glycosylation. The development of new classes of glycosyl donors has not only allowed accessing novel types of glycosidic linkages but also led to the discovery of rapid and convergent strategies for expeditious oligosaccharide synthesis. This chapter summarizes major principles of the glycosidic bond formation and strategies to obtain certain classes of compounds, ranging from glycosides of uncommon sugars to complex oligosaccharide sequences.