The article featured on this issue's front cover is by Martino Forino, Università di Napoli, Italy. The article reports the stereochemistry and conformational behaviour of 13,19-didesmethyl spirolide C to shed some light on the molecular bases of spirolide's biological activity. 

This month's inside front cover features a paper by Shigeo Katsumura, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan. In the paper the authors describe the synthesis of three relatively unstable allene-modified derivatives of peridinin and the results of Stark spectroscopy studies toward elucidation of the exact role of the unique allene function. 

The review in issue 18 is an Emerging Area is on synthetic lectins written by Anthony P. Davis, University of Bristol, UK. In the Emerging Area (which is also a Hot Article) he discusses the mimicry of lectins (carbohydrate-binding proteins) as an attractive goal for supramolecular chemists.