Introduction
<P>Mg/MeOH has proved to be a very useful reagent for various organic transformations.
All the organic transformations using this reagent are carried out at room temperature.
Anhydrous methanol is used for the reactions involving Mg/MeOH. The mildness, ease
of availability of magnesium, both commercially and its natural abundance, coupled
with convenient reaction conditions makes this reagent a useful choice over other
methods which are expensive, toxic, and inconvenient. These aspects of this reagent
are exemplified in the reductive cyclization of activated dienes where toxic and expensive
reagents such as Bu
3SnH and SmI
2 are used.</P>
