Porphyrin (porphine) - A neglected parent compound with potential

Porphine is the parent compound of a family of biologically and chemically relevant compounds called porphyrins. The potential of these compounds is enormous and it would be advantageous to use the porphine (porphyrin) unit as a building block for the synthesis of diverse porphyrin complexes with a wide range of applications. However, despite first being synthesized over 70 years ago, porphine has not been utilized to its full extent due to low yield syntheses and poor solubility. Recent advances have now overcome many of these problems. The purpose of this review is to illustrate the advances made in porphine chemistry to illustrate the inherent potential of this simple compound.