Book reviews Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis Theodora W. Greene and Peter G. M. Wuts 3rd Edition Wiley- Interscience 1999 xxi + 777 pp. price £58.00 ISBN 0471160199 Few scientific books ever make it to a second addition. The fact that Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis has appeared in a third edition is a testament to its stature as one of the most useful handbooks to serve organic chemistry in recent decades. Aside from its bulk—and more of that in a moment—little had changed since the winning formula established in the first edition which appeared in 1981. Separate chapters deal with protection of each of the major functional groups. For each protecting group conditions for formation are cited followed by more extensive discussion of conditions for cleavage.The book is divided into 10 chapters. The first chapter considers the role of protecting groups in organic synthesis. The syntheses of himastatin and palytoxin are included to exemplify the importance of a viable protecting group strategy in the design of a complex target. I would not have chosen either for the simple reason that their synthesis has only ever been described in communications and monuments should have sturdier plinths. The next eight chapters deal successively with protection of the hydroxy group including 1,2- and 1,3-diols (229 pages) phenols and catechols (46 pages) the carbonyl group (75 pages) the carboxy group (52 pages) the thiol group (39 pages) the amino group (159 pages) the alkyne C–H (5 pages) and the phosphate group (40 pages).The book ends with 40 pages of reactivity charts which give a rough indication of the reactivity of a protected functionality towards 108 prototype reagents. The reactivity charts are essentially unchanged since the first and second editions. A total of 1050 protecting groups are included in 5350 citations covering the literature up to the end of 1997. Greene and Wuts is not bedtime reading. It is a comprehensive catalogue of protecting groups with little attempt at being critical. That it is useful is beyond question it must be one of the most cited secondary reference works in the synthetic literature. The third edition which exceeds the bulk of the second edition by 50% will be an essential tool in every synthetic laboratory. The book is reasonably priced. Philip Kocienski University of Glasgow UK 129 Nat. Prod. Rep. 2000 17 129