Synthesis and Antioxidant Properties of Organoselenium Compounds

Abstract

The chemistry of organoselenium reagents provides an asset for organic synthesis. The versatility of these reagents as electrophiles and nucleophiles makes them one of the key components of organic synthesis. Various synthetic transformations such as oxyselenenylations, selenocyclization and selenoxide elimination have been successfully achieved using organoselenium reagents under mild reaction conditions. The presence of selenocysteine in a few mammalian enzymes was the key information for selenium chemists to explore the biochemistry of selenium compounds. Glutathione peroxidase (GPx), a mammalian selenoenzyme, is well known for maintaining redox equilibrium by detoxifying reactive oxygen species.