Rotaxanes with integrated photoswitches: design principles, functional behavior, and emerging applications

• Jullyane Emi Matsushima,
• Khushbu,
• Zuliah Abdulsalam,
• Udyogi Navodya Kulathilaka Conthagamage and
• Víctor García-López

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2345–2366, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.179

• form selective hydrogen bonds between the carbonyl oxygen of the fumaramide unit and the N–H groups of benzylic amide rings. Upon isomerization to the cis isomer, the hydrogen-bonding interactions are weakened, enabling the macrocycle to migrate to a second recognition station [61]. Despite their

• delivery and microscale chemical reactions, by allowing the controlled merging of droplets containing different reactants without the need for traditional reaction vessels. Furthermore, Zhu and co-workers developed a rotaxane-based fluorescence switch in which photoinduced shuttling of the benzylic amide

• macrocycle occurs along a thread containing fumaramide and succinic amide ester units as recognition sites, with highly fluorescent perylene bisimide and pyrene serving as stoppers [67]. The macrocycle features two pyridine units that, upon protonation, effectively quench the fluorescence of both

Comparative analysis of complanadine A total syntheses

• Reem Al-Ahmad and
• Mingji Dai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2334–2344, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.178

• , which continued with an amide-ketone condensation to finally produce 31 in this highly efficient one-step biomimetic cascade sequence. The secondary amine of 31 was selectively protected as a Boc carbamate and the dihydropyridone moiety was oxidized to a pyridone with Pb(OAc)4. Pyridone 32 was prepared

Recent advances in Norrish–Yang cyclization and dicarbonyl photoredox reactions for natural product synthesis

• Peng-Xi Luo,
• Jin-Xuan Yang,
• Shao-Min Fu and
• Bo Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2315–2333, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.177

• pyrrolidine-derived phenyl keto amide substrate 91 with blue LEDs produces the pyrrolidine-fused 4-oxazolidinone (N,O-acetal) 92, precluding preparation of the pyrrolidine analog of lycoplatyrine A (94) by this method. Compound 92 is presumably formed via either the radical mechanism [41] or possibly

• . Asymmetric total synthesis of lycoplatyrine A. Photoreaction of pyrrolidine-derived phenyl keto amide. Photoredox reactions of naphthoquinones. Synthetic study toward γ-rubromycin. Substituent-dependent conformational preferences. Total synthesis of preussomerins EG1, EG2, and EG3. Acknowledgements This

Pathway economy in cyclization of 1,n-enynes

• Hezhen Han,
• Wenjie Mao,
• Bin Lin,
• Maosheng Cheng,
• Lu Yang and
• Yongxiang Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2260–2282, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.173

• acted as nucleophile, the stable imine–gold–aryl cation–π–π interaction precluded rearrangement and promoted the capture of imine to form spiro[indoline-3,3'-pyridine] derivatives 67. The Ph3PAuCl/AgNTf2-catalyzed cyclization of N-propargyl-tethered amide enynes efficiently afforded four distinct

Electrochemical cyclization of alkynes to construct five-membered nitrogen-heterocyclic rings

• Lifen Peng,
• Ting Wang,
• Zhiwen Yuan,
• Bin Li,
• Zilong Tang,
• Xirong Liu,
• Hui Li,
• Guofang Jiang,
• Chunling Zeng,
• Henry N. C. Wong and
• Xiao-Shui Peng

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2173–2201, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.166

• ], sultam-fused pyridinone [106] as well as cyclicphosphinic amide [107] were produced by electrochemical cyclization of alkyne. Especially, the electrochemical organic transformation of alkyne was widely applied to build five-membered rings. For example, benzimidazole-fused isoindole was generated by

C2 to C6 biobased carbonyl platforms for fine chemistry

• Jingjing Jiang,
• Muhammad Noman Haider Tariq,
• Florence Popowycz,
• Yanlong Gu and
• Yves Queneau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2103–2172, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.165

• HFO with benzoic acid amide or furan-2-carboxamide in 1:1 molar ratio at 70 °C for 4–8 h (Scheme 42, path c) [132]. The reaction of HFO with 2-methylfuran in a 1:2.2 molar ratio in diethyl ether solution at room temperature in the presence of catalytic amounts of perchloric acid for 5 hours led to the

• synthesize photoluminescence-active polyamides from renewable furfural and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid with diamine and isocyanide (Scheme 62). The intramolecular hydrogen bonding between the secondary amide and furan oxygen atom promote the strong fluorescence of the polyamides. These furfural-based

Bioinspired total syntheses of natural products: a personal adventure

• Zhengyi Qin,
• Yuting Yang,
• Nuran Yan,
• Xinyu Liang,
• Zhiyu Zhang,
• Yaxuan Duan,
• Huilin Li and
• Xuegong She

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2048–2061, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.160

• additions, respectively. This result suggests that the addition fully went from the upper face and the left-oriented isopropyl showed no steric effect to control the regioselectivity. With free amide 50a and 50b in hand, the mixture was treated with DBU to promote aza-Michael addition to afford lactam

α-Ketoglutaric acid in Ugi reactions and Ugi/aza-Wittig tandem reactions

• Vladyslav O. Honcharov,
• Yana I. Sakhno,
• Olena H. Shvets,
• Vyacheslav E. Saraev,
• Svitlana V. Shishkina,
• Tetyana V. Shcherbakova and
• Valentyn A. Chebanov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2021–2029, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.157

• compared to compounds 5, which can be clearly seen in the spectrum of compound 8h with both substituted ortho-positions of the amine moiety. In our opinion, this indicates the presence of rotamerism [59][60] caused by the restricted rotation of the sterically hindered amide group. The 1H NMR spectra of

• –7.81 ppm, corresponding to 16 protons, multiplets for CH2 groups at 1.78–2.96 ppm, and two signals for tert-butyl groups protons at 1.21–1.24 ppm. The increase in signal multiplicity compared to compounds 5 could indicate the presence of diastereomerism and restricted amide rotation in compounds 6. In

Rhodium-catalysed connective synthesis of diverse reactive probes bearing S(VI) electrophilic warheads

• Scott Rice,
• Julian Chesti,
• William R. T. Mosedale,
• Megan H. Wright,
• Stephen P. Marsden,
• Terry K. Smith and
• Adam Nelson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1924–1931, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.150

• amino acids [8][9][10]. Sets of reactive probes are generally prepared using robust reactions, most usually amide formation, chosen from the toolkit that currently dominates medicinal chemistry [11] which may, in turn, limit probe structural diversity. We have developed a unified connective approach for

• -catalysed reaction between an α-diazo amide substrate bearing a warhead, and a co-substrate. The structural diversity of the probe set was increased by the multiple possible reaction modes of rhodium carbenoids, which enabled many different co-substrate classes and catalyst-driven selectivities to be

Synthesis, biological and electrochemical evaluation of glycidyl esters of phosphorus acids as potential anticancer drugs

• Almaz A. Zagidullin,
• Emil R. Bulatov,
• Mikhail N. Khrizanforov,
• Damir R. Davletshin,
• Elvina M. Gilyazova,
• Ivan A. Strelkov and
• Vasily A. Miluykov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1909–1916, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.148

• oxidation of amide and other amino acid side‐chain fragments. By tracking changes in this oxidation signal upon addition of an alkylating agent, we can infer whether the agent has effectively reacted with (and thus structurally altered) the protein. As illustrated by the black trace in the LSV plot, pure

Photoswitches beyond azobenzene: a beginner’s guide

• Michela Marcon,
• Christoph Haag and
• Burkhard König

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1808–1853, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.143

Synthesis of chiral cyclohexane-linked bisimidazolines

• Changmeng Xi,
• Qingshan Sun and
• Jiaxi Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1786–1790, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.140

• -protected amino group. On the basis of the previous report [28], a possible reaction mechanism is presented in Scheme 3. The reaction of triphenylphosphine oxide and triflic anhydride first generates an activating agent, the Hendrickson reagent (A). The amide in cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxamides 4

Research progress on calixarene/pillararene-based controlled drug release systems

• Liu-Huan Yi,
• Jian Qin,
• Si-Ran Lu,
• Liu-Pan Yang,
• Li-Li Wang and
• Huan Yao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1757–1785, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.139

• Biotin-SAC4A by modifying SAC4A with biotin. (Figure 16) [124]. Monocarboxylated azocalixarene and aminated biotin were synthesized. Subsequently, using a coupling agent, the carboxyl group of the azocalixarene was modified through amidation to obtain biotin-modified SAC4A. The formation of amide bonds

Unique halogen–π association detected in single crystals of C–N atropisomeric N-(2-halophenyl)quinolin-2-one derivatives and the thione analogue

• Mai Uchibori,
• Nanami Murate,
• Kanako Shima,
• Tatsunori Sakagami,
• Ko Kanehisa,
• Gary James Richards,
• Akiko Hori and
• Osamu Kitagawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1748–1756, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.138

• intermolecular interaction (halogen bonding) between chiral compounds possessing an amide group and a thioamide group are quite rare [21]. We were curious as to whether the chirality (racemate/optically pure form)- and the functional group (C=O/C=S)-dependent halogen bonds found in I and II are also observed in

Preparation of a furfural-derived enantioenriched vinyloxazoline building block and exploring its reactivity

• Madara Darzina,
• Anna Lielpetere and
• Aigars Jirgensons

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1737–1741, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.136

• ][24] (Scheme 1). The proposed strategy relied on the N-deprotection of the intermediate ester 3d inducing O-to-N rearrangement to form amide 5 as a precursor of vinyloxazoline 6. For this purpose, Alloc (allyloxycarbonyl) turned out to be a suitable N-protecting group as it was compatible with the

• trans-isomer of amide 5. Results and Discussion The protected furfuryl amino alcohols S-2d and R-2d were prepared by reductive amination of furfural (1) with ʟ- and ᴅ-valinol followed by N-protection with Alloc-Cl (Scheme 2). The amino alcohols S-2d and R-2d were then subjected to electrochemical

• material S-3d but provided a mixture of cis- and trans-amides cis-S-5 and trans-S-5 (Scheme 3). The use of PdCl2(S-BINAP) complex as a precatalyst resulted in a longer reaction time and an exclusive formation of amide trans-S-5 with isomerized double bond (Scheme 4). The amide trans-R-5 was prepared

Catalytic asymmetric reactions of isocyanides for constructing non-central chirality

• Jia-Yu Liao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1648–1660, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.129

• ]. Encouraged by the above results, we turned our attention to biaryl lactams [49]. However, in this case, the inherent resonance stability of the amide bond makes the ring-opening process rather challenging. To solve this problem, we envisioned that a cooperative catalytic system merging silver catalysis and

pH-Controlled isomerization kinetics of ortho-disubstituted benzamidines: E/Z isomerism and axial chirality

• Ryota Kimura,
• Satoshi Ichikawa and
• Akira Katsuyama

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1568–1576, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.120

• substitution of an ortho-disubstituted benzamide (DiBA) increases the rotational barrier of the C–N and C–N/C–C concerted rotation (Figure 1a,b) [20]. The observation can be explained mainly by the double-bond nature of the chalcogen amide C–N bond, which is attributed to a zwitterionic resonance structure of

• chalcogen amide. It has been shown that a late periodic chalcogen amide has a lower energy π* orbital (C=S or C=Se), resulting in an increase in the contribution of the zwitterionic resonance structure [21][22][23]. Based on this consideration, an ortho-disubstituted benzamidine, which is generated by

• various fields, such as functional materials, biological probes, and drugs. a) Structural features of DiBA. b) Resonance structure of the amide moiety of DiBA. c) Molecular form and protonated structure of ortho-disubstituted benzamidine. Rotational barriers of 2-bromo-N,N,6-trimethylbenzimidamide and its

Azide–alkyne cycloaddition (click) reaction in biomass-derived solvent Cyrene^TM under one-pot conditions

• Zoltán Medgyesi and
• László T. Mika

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1544–1551, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.117

• , a wide range of organic reactions, e.g., urea and amide formation [32][33], amide coupling [34], aldol condensation [35], C–H difluoromethylation [36], aromatic substitution [37], and MOFs synthesis [38] were demonstrated in CyreneTM. Very recently, Fasano and Citarella first reported a CuAAC

Photoredox-catalyzed arylation of isonitriles by diaryliodonium salts towards benzamides

• Nadezhda M. Metalnikova,
• Nikita S. Antonkin,
• Tuan K. Nguyen,
• Natalia S. Soldatova,
• Alexander V. Nyuchev,
• Mikhail A. Kinzhalov and
• Pavel S. Postnikov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1480–1488, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.110

• bioactive compounds. According to the DrugBank there are more than 250 approved drugs classified as amides [2]. Just recently, between February 2021 and June 2022, sixteen anticancer drugs containing an amide bond have been approved by the U.S. FDA [3]. Consequently, the preparation of amides has garnered

• significant attention within organic and medicinal chemistry. Commonly, amide bonds are formed via the reaction of carboxylic acids or their derivatives with appropriate amines (Scheme 1A) [4]. Although this conventional approach is effective and straightforward, it usually suffers from harsh conditions and

• % yield. Competing amide 2bn was not detected in the reaction mixture even by GC–MS analysis. In contrast, the mesityl-substituted salt 1l gave both competing products 2ba and 2bk in a ≈4:1 ratio, while the 2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl derivative 2bm yielded a mixture of products 2ba and 2bm in low yield

Copper catalysis: a constantly evolving field

• Elena Fernández and
• Jaesook Yun

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1477–1479, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.109

• by Son and co-workers illustrates recent advancements in the use of dioxazolones in synthetic transformations with copper salts [4]. The authors remark that these catalytic systems, which employ dioxazolones as electrophilic amide sources, were applied for the preparation of diverse amidated products

Advances in nitrogen-containing helicenes: synthesis, chiroptical properties, and optoelectronic applications

• Meng Qiu,
• Jing Du,
• Nai-Te Yao,
• Xin-Yue Wang and
• Han-Yuan Gong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1422–1453, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.106

• optoelectronic materials. In 2022, Furuta’s group developed a one-pot synthetic protocol to access (NH)-phenanthridinone derivatives and chiral amide-functionalized [7]helicene-like molecules 67a,b from biaryl dicarboxylic acids, employing a Curtius rearrangement followed by basic hydrolysis [81] (Table 23

N-Salicyl-amino acid derivatives with antiparasitic activity from Pseudomonas sp. UIAU-6B

• Joy E. Rajakulendran,
• Emmanuel Tope Oluwabusola,
• Michela Cerone,
• Terry K. Smith,
• Olusoji O. Adebisi,
• Adefolalu Adedotun,
• Gagan Preet,
• Sylvia Soldatou,
• Hai Deng,
• Rainer Ebel and
• Marcel Jaspars

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1388–1396, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.103

• (δH 1.10, d, J = 6.9 Hz) revealed the presence of a threonine moiety in 1. Strong HMBC correlations from H-5, H-8 and H-9 to the carbonyl carbon C-7 (δC 167.2) confirmed an amide bond by which the salicylic acid and threonine residues were linked. The deshielded carbon signal at δC 172.9 was assigned

• H-11 to C-10 (δC 173.5), H3-12 to C-9 (δC 128.1) and C-11 (δC 133.9). The relative stereochemistry of the double bond of the dehydrobutyrine moiety was established as Z based on a medium NOE correlation observed between the amide proton, H-8 (δH 9.82) and the methyl protons, H3-12 (see Figure 2 and

• configuration to that of 3, evidenced by a medium through space correlation between the amide proton, H-8 (δH 9.9) and the methyl, H3-12 (δH 1.76) in the NOESY spectrum (see Figure 2 and Supporting Information File 1, Figure S23). Based on HRESIMS, 1D and 2D NMR data, the structure of compound 4, was confirmed

Oxetanes: formation, reactivity and total syntheses of natural products

• Peter Gabko,
• Martin Kalník and
• Maroš Bella

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1324–1373, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.101

• -aminooxetanes 169 through a defluorosulphonylative coupling of sulphonyl fluorides 168 (Scheme 41) [92]. Because this novel methodology mimics the classical amide coupling strategy, it allows for a direct use of the established amine libraries and thus provides a rapid access to benzamide bioisosteres. The

• nucleophiles, thus providing access to oxetane sulphonamides, sulphonyl azides, sulphonates and sulphones [93]. In 2024, Soós et al. published a similarly mild protocol for the synthesis of amide bioisosteres which utilises Katritzky’s benzotriazole chemistry (Scheme 42) [94]. Unlike the Bull’s methodology

• to a potentially even larger library of amide isosteres. The scope of the carbon nucleophiles is very broad and includes alkyls, alkenyls, alkynyls, aryls and heteroaryls (e.g., pyridine, indole, thiophene), as well as (poly)substituted phenyls bearing a nitrile or halogen(s). On the other hand, the

Recent advances in amidyl radical-mediated photocatalytic direct intermolecular hydrogen atom transfer

• Hao-Sen Wang,
• Lin Li,
• Xin Chen,
• Jian-Li Wu,
• Kai Sun,
• Xiao-Lan Chen,
• Ling-Bo Qu and
• Bing Yu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1306–1323, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.100

• ]. The electron-withdrawing groups could stabilize the charge of the N-centered radical during the HAT process by decreasing the charge density [44]. Notably, the BDE of N–H in the corresponding amide might be too low to ensure a spontaneous HAT process due to the electronic effect of the substituent

• amidyl radicals from HRP: (a) direct single-electron oxidation of amide HRP in the presence of photocatalyst and a base via a proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) process by the cleavage of the N–H bond; (b) single-electron reduction of HRP catalyzed by photocatalyst via a single-electron transfer

• (SET) process by the cleavage of the N–O bond; (c) direct homolytic cleavage of weak N–S or N–X bonds in HRP initiated in the presence of visible light; (d) the intersystem crossing (ISC) of S1 to T1 state directly from the amide anion. This review is organized by bond cleavage type, offering a deep

Recent advances in oxidative radical difunctionalization of N-arylacrylamides enabled by carbon radical reagents

• Jiangfei Chen,
• Yi-Lin Qu,
• Ming Yuan,
• Xiang-Mei Wu,
• Heng-Pei Jiang,
• Ying Fu and
• Shengrong Guo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1207–1271, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.98

• different alkyl substituents at the α-position of the 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds, including functionalized alkyl chains with alkenyl, alkynyl, and aryl groups, all of which were compatible with the reaction conditions. Interestingly, when α-alkylmalonic esters were employed instead of malonate amide moieties

• experiments and cyclic voltammetry (CV) indicated that the reaction mechanism proceeds via a radical pathway. DFES-Na undergoes single-electron oxidation at the anode, generating a radical that reacts with the olefinic amide, followed by intramolecular cyclization to form the target difluoroalkylated