Recent advances in total synthesis of illisimonin A

• Juan Huang and
• Ming Yang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2571–2583, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.199

• proposed biosynthetic pathway clarifies the relationship between illisimonin A and other Illicium sesquiterpenes. Allo-cedrane-type, seco-prezizaane-type and illismonane-type Illicium sesquiterpenes are all biosynthesized from farnesyl diphosphate (2) through a series of cationic cyclizations and

Total syntheses of highly oxidative Ryania diterpenoids facilitated by innovations in synthetic strategies

• Zhi-Qi Cao,
• Jin-Bao Qiao and
• Yu-Ming Zhao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2553–2570, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.198

• anhydroryanodine (not shown) to the corresponding hemiacetal. However, common reducing agents proved ineffective for lactone reduction. Leveraging previous findings, the authors implemented an alternative strategy involving two sequential intramolecular reductive cyclizations to invert the configuration of the C3

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

• , α-keto amides, 1,4-quinones, and 1,2-quinones in this context, have emerged as versatile substrates in Norrish–Yang cyclizations, finding widespread application in natural products synthesis. Compared to monoketones, dicarbonyls (e.g., 1,2-diketones) offer distinct advantages: (1) they generally

Enantioselective radical chemistry: a bright future ahead

• Anna C. Renner,
• Sagar S. Thorat,
• Hariharaputhiran Subramanian and
• Mukund P. Sibi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2283–2296, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.174

• applied in the development of enantioselective polyene cyclizations, which demonstrated the power of the catalytic strategy. In the presence of a chiral amine catalyst 16 (Scheme 3) and the mild oxidant Cu(OTf)2, polyenes with a terminal aldehyde group underwent intramolecular cyclizations affording

• , particularly involving photoredox catalysts, have led to the emerging area of photoenzymatic catalysis. Several new modes of activation successfully catalyzed by enzymes have been demonstrated [71][72][73][74]. Notable photoenzymatic reactions involving radical cyclizations have been reported. In one

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

• systematically regulating reaction parameters (solvent, substituent, ligand, catalyst) in 1,n-enyne cyclizations, enabling efficient "one-to-many" transformations that drastically reduce synthetic steps and resource consumption. Review Solvent-controlled cyclization of 1,n-enynes Solvents play a multifaceted

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

• , electrochemical cyclizations of alkynes to construct five-membered rings are highlighted. Firstly, the property and application of five-membered rings are simply introduced. After presenting the usefulness of alkynes and the general progress of electrochemical transformations, electrochemical cyclization

• ][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] have been extensively applied as facilely available starting materials to build five-membered rings for their hybrid structures with appropriate reactivities [56][57][58][59]. For example, cyclizations of silyloxyenyne [60], anionic cyclization of enediyne

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

• -phellandrene provided a steric effect to the cycloaddition. Then, sarglamides D and E arose from C through acid-promoted oxy-cyclizations. This biosynthetic approach rapidly constructs the complex structure from simple precursors, thus we intended to achieve the total synthesis of sarglamides through the

Switchable pathways of multicomponent heterocyclizations of 5-amino-1,2,4-triazoles with salicylaldehydes and pyruvic acid

• Yana I. Sakhno,
• Oleksander V. Buravov,
• Kostyantyn Yu. Yurkov,
• Anastasia Yu. Andryushchenko,
• Svitlana V. Shishkina and
• Valentyn A. Chebanov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2030–2035, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.158

• substituted salicylaldehydes are particularly interesting because of the possibility of additional reactions and post-cyclizations involving the o-hydroxy group. It was demonstrated [10][11][12] that the multicomponent reaction of substituted 3-amino-1,2,4-triazoles, various salicylaldehydes, and acetone

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

• an additional reaction center for post-cyclizations, is scarcely reported in the literature [25][30][31]. Among the numerous tandem synthetic approaches, the combination of Ugi/aza-Wittig reactions is of particular interest. In recent years, several works have been dedicated to the synthesis of

• further purification after filtration. The use of starting components containing highly reactive groups, for example, an azide group, in the Ugi reaction provides opportunities for various post-cyclizations to obtain nitrogen-containing heterocyclic systems with potential biological activity [18]. To

Chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis of helically chiral, planarly chiral and inherently chiral molecules

• Wei Liu and
• Xiaoyu Yang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1864–1889, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.145

• as cyclizations, aromatic substitutions and condensations, along with asymmetric synthesis strategies, such as enantioselective desymmetrization and (dynamic) kinetic resolution, have been employed for the asymmetric construction of these chiral elements. Despite remarkable progress and significant

Transition-state aromaticity and its relationship with reactivity in pericyclic reactions

• Israel Fernández

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1613–1626, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.125

• the lower barriers computed for the Hopf cyclizations of ene–ene–ynes E=CH–CH=CH–C≡CH where the terminal CH2 group was replaced by a heteroatom (E = NH or O). Figure 8 shows the corresponding ASDs for the parent cyclization (E = CH2) and the analogous process involving the imine system (E = NH). In

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

• benzamides from isonitriles as well as in multicomponent reactions with isonitriles in general. Only a few examples of photochemical cascade arylation–cyclizations of isonitriles with diaryliodonium salts have been published [31][32][33]. To bridge this gap, we propose a photoredox-mediated strategy for the

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

• , or selenium enables spectral tuning across the visible to near-infrared range, improved photostability, and dual-state emissive behavior. In parallel, significant progress in synthetic methodologies – including enantioselective catalysis, electrochemical cyclizations, and multicomponent reaction

• absorption and emission maxima (λabs = 399 nm, λem = 405 nm), a fluorescence quantum yield (ΦF) of 0.13, and high dissymmetry factors (|gabs| = 1.9 × 10−2, |gabs| = 9.5 × 10−3 at 403 nm) [18] (Table 2). Miura and co-workers employed Pd(II)/Ag(I)-catalyzed cyclizations to construct azahelicenes, with compound

High-pressure activation for the solvent- and catalyst-free syntheses of heterocycles, pharmaceuticals and esters

• Kelsey Plasse,
• Valerie Wright,
• Guoshu Xie,
• R. Bernadett Vlocskó,
• Alexander Lazarev and
• Béla Török

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1374–1387, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.102

• successfully applied to several reactions; cyclizations of various types, acylations and esterifications. In addition to being efficient at a small scale, the scale up of the Paal–Knorr reaction was also achieved. Compared to the traditional benchtop alternatives the HHP-assisted approach provided several

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

• ) catalyst is then regenerated at the Pt cathode. Protonation of D gives intermediate E, and subsequent deprotonation at the anode yields the target compound 35a. N-Arylalkenes: difluoroalkyl/trifluoroalkyl radicals While the majority of radical cyclizations involve hydrocarbon-based radicals, the

Synthesis of pyrrolo[3,2-d]pyrimidine-2,4(3H)-diones by domino C–N coupling/hydroamination reactions

• Ruben Manuel Figueira de Abreu,
• Robin Tiedemann,
• Peter Ehlers and
• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1010–1017, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.82

• . Keywords: alkynes; catalysis; cyclizations; domino reactions; heterocycles; Introduction Pyrimidines and purines are one of the most important heterocyclic compounds with prevalent biological functions. Both are found in nucleosides and their corresponding polymeric DNA and RNA, and hence are vital for

Recent total synthesis of natural products leveraging a strategy of enamide cyclization

• Chun-Yu Mi,
• Jia-Yuan Zhai and
• Xiao-Ming Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 999–1009, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.81

• reactions [7][8], the exploration of enamides’ nucleophilic reactivity has only gained momentum in recent years. Inspired by pioneering work from various research groups [9][10][11][12][13][14][15], the potential of enamides in nucleophilic reactions has become recognized. Among them, enamide cyclizations

• have attracted considerable attention due to their promise in the total synthesis of alkaloids [16]. Notably, these valuable compounds can be employed as efficient synthons in enamide–alkyne cycloisomerization, [n + m] cycloadditions, pericyclic reactions, and radical cyclizations. A comprehensive

• review of these advancements up until 2015 has already been documented [16]. In this review, recent breakthroughs of these enamide cyclizations will be surveyed from the viewpoint of natural product synthesis. Leveraging the enamide–alkyne cycloisomerization cyclizations, Lycopodium alkaloids

Recent advances in controllable/divergent synthesis

• Jilei Cao,
• Leiyang Bai and
• Xuefeng Jiang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 890–914, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.73

• for the time-controlled palladium-catalyzed divergent synthesis of silacycles [43]. Metal-free temperature-controlled regiodivergent borylative cyclizations of enynes [45]. Nickel-catalyzed switchable site-selective alkene hydroalkylation by temperature regulation [46]. Copper-catalyzed

Streamlined modular synthesis of saframycin substructure via copper-catalyzed three-component assembly and gold-promoted 6-endo cyclization

• Asahi Kanno,
• Ryo Tanifuji,
• Satoshi Yoshida,
• Sota Sato,
• Saori Maki-Yonekura,
• Kiyofumi Takaba,
• Jungmin Kang,
• Kensuke Tono,
• Koji Yonekura and
• Hiroki Oguri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 226–233, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.14

• involvement of a fluorescent intermediate in the cascade synthetic process. Keywords: cascade reactions; copper-catalyzed three-component coupling; gold-mediated 6-endo hydroamination; tandem cyclizations; tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids; Introduction The bis-tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ) alkaloid family

Recent advances in organocatalytic atroposelective reactions

• Henrich Szabados and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 55–121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.6

• purities (Scheme 3). Sparr and co-workers developed an atroposelective synthesis for tetra-ortho-substituted biaryls 11 by non-canonical polyketide cyclizations [21]. This work was based on an earlier report of the team on the aldol cyclization of naphthyl-substituted unsaturated ketoaldehydes [22]. The

Non-covalent organocatalyzed enantioselective cyclization reactions of α,β-unsaturated imines

• Sergio Torres-Oya and
• Mercedes Zurro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3221–3255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.268

• example. This review discusses different examples involving IEDADA reactions and other cyclizations, with a special focus on the mode of action of the organocatalysts, and aims to show the synthetic applicability of the formed cyclic derivatives. The three non-covalent organocatalysts which will be

• carbamate group by interaction with the oxygen atom of the phosphoryl group. Although recently Rana and co-workers published a review article covering catalytic asymmetric transformations of azadienes [16], there is still room for this review which only focuses on non-covalent organocatalyzed cyclizations

• the field, other dienes bearing two nitrogen atoms in their structure such as 1,3-azadienes or azo-alkenes are also included. On the contrary, asymmetric cyclizations involving aza-ortho-quinone intermediates and in situ-formed 1-azadienes were excluded as they have been discussed in other recent

Copper-catalyzed yne-allylic substitutions: concept and recent developments

• Shuang Yang and
• Xinqiang Fang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2739–2775, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.232

• as Meldrum’s acid and 1,3-dimethylbarbituric acid were used as the nucleophiles, the yne-allylic substitution products underwent further intramolecular cyclizations to give the spiro-cyclic products in high yields (Scheme 31, 30a–f). The generation of products likely begins with an α-attack on the

• formal [4 + 1] and [4 + 2] cyclizations were carried out through substitution by an alkynyl copper-driven dearomatization/rearomatization/cyclization/isomerization process (Scheme 40). Li, Yu and Liu et al. [78] achieved the asymmetric catalyzed dearomative [4 + 1] spiroannulation of nonfunctionalized 1

5th International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis (ISySyCat2023)

• Anthony J. Burke and
• Elisabete P. Carreiro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2704–2707, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.227

• performance. In their contribution “Metal-catalyzed coupling/carbonylative cyclizations for accessing dibenzodiazepinones: an expedient route to clozapine and other drugs”, Moutayakine and Burke described a new synthetic route for the synthesis of 10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[b,e][1,4]diazepinone (DBDAP

Photoredox-catalyzed intramolecular nucleophilic amidation of alkenes with β-lactams

• Valentina Giraldi,
• Giandomenico Magagnano,
• Daria Giacomini,
• Pier Giorgio Cozzi and
• Andrea Gualandi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2461–2468, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.210

• research [11][12], particularly focusing on innovative approaches to synthesize natural or bioactive compounds [13]. In the carboamination of alkenes, amides are used in photoredox cyclizations under proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) conditions [14][15][16][17]. An alternative method to generate N

Hypervalent iodine-mediated cyclization of bishomoallylamides to prolinols

• Smaher E. Butt,
• Konrad Kepski,
• Jean-Marc Sotiropoulos and
• Wesley J. Moran

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2455–2460, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.209

• previous report on N-alkenylamide cyclizations. B) An overview of the present work. Calculated mechanism for the cyclization of amide 3a optimized at the B3LYP/ 6-31+G(d,p) level of theory with SDDall used for iodine. Solvent effects were considered using the CPCM model. All ΔG values are in kcal·mol−1