Molecular recognition of natural products by resorc[4]arene receptors

This review is aimed at providing an overview of the up-to-now published literature on resorc[4]arene macrocycles exploited as artificial receptors for the molecular recognition of some classes of natural products. A concise illustration of the main synthetic strategies developed to afford the resorc[4]arene scaffold is followed by a report on the principles of the gas-phase investigation of recognition phenomena by mass spectrometry (MS). Emphasis is placed on gas-phase studies of diastereoisomeric complexes generated inside a Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer by resorc[4]arene receptors towards a series of natural products, namely amino acids, amphetamine, ethanolamine neurotransmitters, dipeptides, vinca alkaloids and nucleosides. The literature outcomes discussed here, taken largely from our own revisited work, have been completed by references to other studies, in order to draw a broader picture of this rapidly evolving field of research.