The impact of organometallic chemistry on the terpene field only really blossomed in the 1960s and 1970s with the realisation that carbon-carbon bond formation under mild conditions could be achieved by using nickel or iron carbonyls as synthetic reagents. Concomitantly, the development of palladium derivatives capable of the controlled coupling of isoprene units attracted the attention of numerous highly talented researchers, including future Nobel laureates. We discuss briefly how early work on the syntheses of simple monoterpenes soon progressed to sesquiterpenes and diterpenes of increasing complexity, such as humulene, flexibilene, vitamin A, or pheromones of commercial value, in particular those used in perfumery (muscone, lavandulol), or grandisol and red scale pheromone as replacements for harmful pesticides. As the field progressed, there has been more emphasis on developing organometallic routes to enantiopure rather than racemic products, as well as gaining precise mechanistic data on the transformations, notably the course of metal-promoted molecular rearrangements that have long been a feature of terpene chemistry. We note the impact of the enormously enhanced analytical techniques, high-field NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography, and their use to re-examine the originally proposed structures of terpenes and their organometallic derivatives. Finally, we highlight the very recent ground-breaking use of the crystalline sponge method to acquire structural data on low-melting or volatile terpenes. The literature cited herein covers the period 1959 to 2023.
Keywords: McMurry coupling; X-ray crystallography; allyl-palladium couplings; epoxidations; guaiazulene; nickel and iron carbonyls; pheromones; ring-strained terpenes.