Nitrogen-Containing Heterocyclic Compounds Obtained from Monoterpenes or Their Derivatives: Synthesis and Properties

Directed transformation of available natural compounds with native biological activity is a promising area of research in organic and medicinal chemistry aimed at finding effective drug substances. The number of scientific publications devoted to the transformation of natural compounds and investigations of their pharmacological properties, in particular, monoterpenes and their nearest derivatives, increases every year. At the same time, the chemistry of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds has been actively developed since the 1950s after the news that the benzimidazole core is an integral part of the structure of vitamin B₁₂. At the time of writing this review, the data on chemical modifications of monoterpenes and their nearest derivatives leading to formation of compounds with a nitrogen-containing heterocycle core have not been summarized and systematized in terms of chemical transformations. In this review, we tried to summarize the literature data on the preparation and properties of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds synthesized from monoterpenes/monoterpenoids and their nearest derivatives for the period from 2000 to 2021.