Abstract
Several low molecular weight naphthoquinones are very useful in organic synthesis. These compounds have given rise to thousands of other naphthoquinones that have been tested against various microorganisms and pharmacological targets, including being used in the preparation of several drugs that are on the pharmaceutical market. Among these naphthoquinones, the series of compounds prepared from 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulfonic acid salts (β-NQS) stands out. In addition to being used in organic synthesis, they are excellent analytical derivatization reagents to spectrophotometrically determine drugs containing primary and secondary amino groups. This review summarizes the literature involving β-NQS.