Vade Retro Malaria: The Vagaries of Eradication Campaigns

The reverse of the aldol addition reaction is called the retro-aldol reaction. Here, the carbon–carbon bond in the aldol product is cleaved under acidic or basic conditions to form two molecules of carbonyl compounds. The mechanism of the reaction consists of three steps.
In the first step, as depicted in Figure 1, the base deprotonates the β-hydroxy ketone at the hydroxyl group to form an alkoxide ion.

The Diels–Alder reaction is thermally reversible, meaning that the reaction reverts to the starting diene and dienophile under suitable temperatures. The forward reaction gives a cyclohexene derivative and is favored at low to medium temperatures. The reverse process, also called retro-Diels–Alder reaction, is a ring-opening process favored at high temperatures.