Abstract : Since the first report by Evans in asymmetric Friedel-Crafts reactions, the use of acyl-imidazoles has blossomed as powerful ester/amide surrogates. The imidazole scaffold indeed displays stability and special activation features allowing both better reactivity and selectivity in traditional ester/amide functionalizations α-(enolate chemistry), β-(conjugate additions), α,β-(cycloadditions) or γ/δ-(vinylogous). An overview of the contemporary and growing interest in acyl-imidazoles in metal- and organo-catalyzed transformations (bio-hybrid catalytic systems will be fully described in a back-to-back Minireview) will be highlighted. Moreover, post-functionalization expediencies are also going to be discussed in this Minireview. © 2019 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim
