Rapid carbohydrate protecting group manipulations assisted by microwave dielectric heating

The protocols for oligosaccharide synthesis are often tedious due to extend ed synthetic routes and reaction times. We herein describe methods assisted by microwave dielectric heating, which enable very short reaction times an d high yields for the introduction and removal of eleven of the most common ly used protecting groups in carbohydrate syntheses. Several examples are r eported, where solid supported reagents in combination with microwave diele ctric heating have been used. This results in both faster and easier synthe sis and purification.