Synthetic Approaches for Iron Type Chelators

Synthetic iron chelators (siderophores mimics) are of paramount interest as clinical iron removal agents (iron overload is one of the most common poisoning) and water-soluble iron complexes can be used to alleviate iron deficiency in plants. Moreover, some additional properties may be needed for a precise function (as examples, probes for studying metal transport, diagnostic tools, agent suited for vectorisation...). We describe in this review the organic syntheses of selected typical examples from our own works. (i) Amphiphilic chelators based on catechol groups. (ii) Mixed ligands based on catechol and quinoline groups. (iii) Quinolobactin, a natural siderophore. (iv) Oxinobactin, a biomimetic synthetic analog of enterobactin involving 8-hydroxyquinoline chelating subunits.