Fluorine containing Bioactive Heterocycles

Department of Chemistry, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur-302 004

In recent decades, there has been considerable interest in medical applications and biochemistry of organic compounds containing fluorine. The discovery of 5-fluoronracil in the fifties is a classical example of a heterocyclic compound where the replacement of even one hydrogen by a fluorine atom led to great modification in biological activity of the parent non-fluorinated heterocycle. This presentation gives a background to this exciting new area in organic chemistry and briefly describes some of the recent work in the author's laboratory.