Ring contraction and ring expansion reactions in terpenoid biosynthesis and their application to total synthesis

• Nicolas Kratena,
• Nicolas Heinzig and
• Peter Gärtner

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 289–343, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.21

Arene activation via π-bond localization: concepts and opportunities

• Paul Meiners,
• Julian J. Melder and
• Tobias Morack

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 257–273, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.19

• nucleophile toward diphenylketene to generate a cyclohexadienyl intermediate that captures a second ketene molecule (Figure 11B). Subsequent ring closure furnishes a product complex that, upon oxidation with molecular oxygen, liberates the [2 + 2 + 2] bis-adduct, dihydroisochroman-3-one, in 73% yield. This

Synthesis of the tetracyclic skeleton of Aspidosperma alkaloids via PET-initiated cationic radical-derived interrupted [2 + 2]/retro-Mannich reaction

• Ru-Dong Liu,
• Jian-Yu Long,
• Zhi-Lin Song,
• Zhen Yang and
• Zhong-Chao Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2470–2478, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.189

• leads to ketene D, which can undergo cycloaddition with an alkene to yield E. This fragmentation pathway dominates under various conditions (e.g., transition-metal catalysis, nucleophilic addition) and is driven by ring-strain release [11]. PET, an alternative to direct excitation and EnT, enables the

Synthetic study toward vibralactone

• Liang Shi,
• Jiayi Song,
• Yiqing Li,
• Jia-Chen Li,
• Shuqi Li,
• Li Ren,
• Zhi-Yun Liu and
• Hong-Dong Hao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2376–2382, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.182

• . This intermediate was intended to be prepared through allylation [36] with its precursor 15 accessible from aldehyde 16 and acetyl chloride through ketene–aldehyde [2 + 2] cycloaddition [37]. Results and Discussion Our synthetic route commenced from the known aldehyde 16 which is readily accessed in a

• single step from commercially available fructone [38] (Scheme 3). Following an efficient O-trimethylsilylquinine-catalyzed ketene–aldehyde cycloaddition and subsequent alkylation [36], 17 was synthesized. From 17, it was envisioned that the bicyclic skeleton could be efficiently constructed through ketal

Halogenated butyrolactones from the biomass-derived synthon levoglucosenone

• Johannes Puschnig,
• Martyn Jevric and
• Ben W. Greatrex

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2297–2301, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.175

• species in situ was crucial for this transformation. By modifying a procedure for the trifluoromethylation of ketene dithioacetals reported by Liu and co-workers using TMSCF3 [43], rapid consumption of enamine 15 was observed. Acidic treatment of the intermediate promoted the hydrolysis/elimination

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

Optimized synthesis of aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals by omission of solubilizing alcohol cosolvents

• Julius Krenzer and
• Thomas J. J. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1201–1206, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.97

• Julius Krenzer Thomas J. J. Muller Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Institut für Organische Chemie und Makromolekulare Chemie, Universitätsstraße 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany 10.3762/bjoc.21.97 Abstract Aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals are obtained by condensation of aroyl chlorides and 2-methyl

• -N-benzylbenzothiazolium salts in 1,4-dioxane at room temperature in short reaction time in 20–99% yield. This protocol represents a considerable improvement over the standard synthesis in 1,4-dioxane/ethanol mixtures at elevated temperatures. Keywords: aroyl chlorides; aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals

• ; condensation; Einhorn-type acylation; 2-methyl N-benzyl benzothiazolium salts; Introduction Aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals, in particular N-benzyl derivatives 1, are very short donor–acceptor chromophores that have recently found a renaissance due to their peculiar intense solid-state emission and significant turn

C–H Trifluoromethylthiolation of aldehyde hydrazones

• Victor Levet,
• Balu Ramesh,
• Congyang Wang and
• Tatiana Besset

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2883–2890, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.242

• cyclization of aryl hydrazones with aryl isothiocyanates promoted by elemental sulfur [70]. In the course of their studies for the thiocyanation of ketene dithioacetals, Yang, Wang and co-workers developed an electrochemical oxidization-based synthetic strategy to circumvent the need for external oxidants. In

Transition-metal-free decarbonylation–oxidation of 3-arylbenzofuran-2(3H)-ones: access to 2-hydroxybenzophenones

• Bhaskar B. Dhotare,
• Seema V. Kanojia,
• Chahna K. Sakhiya,
• Amey Wadawale and
• Dibakar Goswami

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2655–2667, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.223

• environmental hazards, and this can only be circumvented using a transition-metal-free synthesis protocol. Although eco-friendly methods for the synthesis of 2-hydroxybenzophenones have been reported via a cycloaromatization of α-alkenoyl ketene dithioacetals and nitroethane in water [15], an alternate and more

Stereoselective mechanochemical synthesis of thiomalonate Michael adducts via iminium catalysis by chiral primary amines

• Michał Błauciak,
• Dominika Andrzejczyk,
• Błażej Dziuk and
• Rafał Kowalczyk

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2313–2322, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.198

• adduct. Hence, after 24 hours up to 9% of sulfa-adduct was formed (see Supporting Information File 1 for details). Unfavorable in this case is the formation of ketene via thiol elimination [40], leading to the formation of a mixture of products where the thia-Michael adduct predominates over the desired

Selective hydrolysis of α-oxo ketene N,S-acetals in water: switchable aqueous synthesis of β-keto thioesters and β-keto amides

• Haifeng Yu,
• Wanting Zhang,
• Xuejing Cui,
• Zida Liu,
• Xifu Zhang and
• Xiaobo Zhao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2225–2233, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.190

• Haifeng Yu Wanting Zhang Xuejing Cui Zida Liu Xifu Zhang Xiaobo Zhao College of Chemistry, Baicheng Normal University, Baicheng, Jilin 137000, China 10.3762/bjoc.20.190 Abstract An eco-friendly selective hydrolysis of chain α-oxo ketene N,S-acetals in water for the switchable synthesis of β-keto

• thioesters and β-keto amides is reported. In refluxing water, the hydrolysis reactions of α-oxo ketene N,S-acetals in the presence of 1.0 equiv of dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid effectively afforded β-keto thioesters in excellent yield, while β-keto amides were successfully obtained in excellent yield when the

• hydrolysis reactions were carried out in the presence of 3.0 equiv of NaOH. The green approach to β-keto thioesters and β-keto amides avoids the use of harmful organic solvents, thiols and thiolacetates as well as amines, which could result in serious environmental and safety issues. Keywords: α-oxo ketene

Efficacy of radical reactions of isocyanides with heteroatom radicals in organic synthesis

• Akiya Ogawa and
• Yuki Yamamoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2114–2128, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.182

• lack of geometrical isomerization of the C–N double bond of the dithiolation products [32]. The thioselenation product 6’, an imine derivative, can be converted to a β-lactam derivative by [2 + 2] cycloaddition with ketene generated in situ. For example, thioselenation of RNC (R = (EtO)2P(O)–CH2) gave

Multicomponent syntheses of pyrazoles via (3 + 2)-cyclocondensation and (3 + 2)-cycloaddition key steps

• Ignaz Betcke,
• Alissa C. Götzinger,
• Maryna M. Kornet and
• Thomas J. J. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2024–2077, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.178

• -unsaturated ketones 98 are S,S-ketene acetals capable of undergoing Liebeskind–Srogl coupling with boronic acids and phenylhydrazine in a consecutive three-component reaction to give pyrazoles 99 (Scheme 35) [118]. Beltrán-Rodil et al. used a similar strategy to synthesize 1,3,5-substituted pyrazoles 101 by

Harnessing the versatility of hydrazones through electrosynthetic oxidative transformations

• Aurélie Claraz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1988–2004, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.175

• thiocyanation of ketene dithioacetals, Wang and Yang et al. mentioned one example of thiocyanation of benzaldehyde-derived hydrazone 120 using potassium thiocyanate as a source of thiocyanate radical. The electrolysis was conducted in the presence of two equivalents of water in acetonitrile with lithium

Access to 2-oxoazetidine-3-carboxylic acid derivatives via thermal microwave-assisted Wolff rearrangement of 3-diazotetramic acids in the presence of nucleophiles

• Ivan Lyutin,
• Vasilisa Krivovicheva,
• Grigory Kantin and
• Dmitry Dar’in

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1894–1899, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.164

• -generated ketene, previously described using carbocyclic diazodiketones [35] were also unsuccessful. Of the diazotetramic acids, only the spiro adamantane derivative 1m was not able to form the desired β-lactam. These reactions gave complex mixtures of unidentified products. The benzyl esters 3k and 3n were

• the exocyclic carbonyl group by preformed ring contraction and interaction of the intermediate ketene with the selected nucleophile. Various aromatic and aliphatic amines as well as alcohols and thiols can be used as nucleophiles. 5-Monosubstituted diazotetramic acids give exclusively trans

N-Sulfenylsuccinimide/phthalimide: an alternative sulfenylating reagent in organic transformations

• Fatemeh Doraghi,
• Seyedeh Pegah Aledavoud,
• Mehdi Ghanbarlou,
• Bagher Larijani and
• Mohammad Mahdavi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1471–1502, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.106

• of polarized ketene-N,O-acetal to the alkyne β-carbon and trapping of the sulfonium cation at the alkyne-α-carbon afforded 5-(arylthio)-3,6-dihydropyridin-2(1H)-one 148. The coordination of a sulfonium electrophile to the C–C triple bond of 1-I occurred through cyclopropyl intermediate 1-I. The

Synthesis of ether lipids: natural compounds and analogues

• Marco Antônio G. B. Gomes,
• Alicia Bauduin,
• Chloé Le Roux,
• Romain Fouinneteau,
• Wilfried Berthe,
• Mathieu Berchel,
• Hélène Couthon and
• Paul-Alain Jaffrès

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1299–1369, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.96

Non-noble metal-catalyzed cross-dehydrogenation coupling (CDC) involving ether α-C(sp³)–H to construct C–C bonds

• Hui Yu and
• Feng Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1259–1288, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.94

• coupling process. Initially, ether 64 interacts with tert-butoxyl radicals via hydrogen atom transfer reaction to generate radical A with release of tert-butyl alcohol. Subsequently, the radical A adds to the C=C bond of α-oxo ketene dithioacetal 107 to form radical B, which further reacts with Fe(III) to

Asymmetric tandem conjugate addition and reaction with carbocations on acylimidazole Michael acceptors

• Brigita Mudráková,
• Renata Marcia de Figueiredo,
• Jean-Marc Campagne and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 881–888, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.65

• enolates obtained from acylimidazoles in this work with other metal enolates obtained by related conjugate additions. In comparison, the HOMO energy of a related silyl ketene aminal was similar (−7.87 eV) but its NBO charge was more negative −0.343. The TMS enolate of benzoxazole has a higher HOMO energy

Vicinal ketoesters – key intermediates in the total synthesis of natural products

• Marc Paul Beller and
• Ulrich Koert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1236–1248, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.129

• cycloisomerization of the α-ketoester 22, which can be described as a Friedel–Crafts-type reaction or an aldol reaction of an S,O-ketene acetal (Scheme 4). The required ketoester 22 was synthesized from sulfonylchromenone 20, accessible from dihydroxyacetophenone 19 and thiol 18 derived from known alcohol 17 [11][12

• (−)-irofulven (87), Movassaghi et al. used a CuII-catalyzed asymmetric aldol reaction of O-silyl ketene S,O-acetal 84 with methyl pyruvate (85) to enantioselectively install the crucial tertiary TMS-protected alcohol in ester 86 (Scheme 14) [29]. Eleven further steps gave (−)-irofulven (87). 2. Mesoxalic

Syntheses of novel pyridine-based low-molecular-weight luminogens possessing aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) properties

• Masayori Hagimori,
• Tatsusada Yoshida,
• Yasuhisa Nishimura,
• Yukiko Ogawa and
• Keitaro Tanaka

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 580–587, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.60

• -yl)amino)-substituted maleimides. Results and Discussion Maleimides are versatile reagents for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds. Previously, we have reported functional maleimides derived from ketene dithioacetals and have prepared fluorescent compounds using this reagent [23][24]. In this

Tenacibactins K–M, cytotoxic siderophores from a coral-associated gliding bacterium of the genus Tenacibaculum

• Yasuhiro Igarashi,
• Yiwei Ge,
• Tao Zhou,
• Amit Raj Sharma,
• Enjuro Harunari,
• Naoya Oku and
• Agus Trianto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 110–119, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.12

• conducted [24] (Figure 4). In the negative ion mode, a precursor ion m/z 654 underwent sequential eliminations at every hydroxamate C–N bond, giving rise to ketene-terminated product ions at m/z 621 and 421, which supported the position of hydroxylation at N37 and N26 and chain lengths of each cadaverine

• /succinic acid module (Scheme 1, paths E1 and E2). The third elimination product, C15-ketene (structure in square brackets, Scheme 1) was not observed, but a pentadecenoate anion, appearing at m/z 239, warranted the existence of fragmentation path E3 and also the chain length of the acyl unit. Hydration of

• ketene to give carboxylate was also detected as an ion at m/z 439. The fragment ions m/z 232, 199, 181, and 98 were commonly detected in the MS/MS spectra for compounds 1–3, which appeared to be derived from the right half of the molecule by sequentially losing hydroxyamine, water, and tetrahydropyridine

Efficient synthesis of ethyl 2-(oxazolin-2-yl)alkanoates via ethoxycarbonylketene-induced electrophilic ring expansion of aziridines

• Yelong Lei and
• Jiaxi Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 70–76, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.6

• -2-yl)alkanamides and 1-(oxazolin-2-yl)alkylphosphonates. Keywords: aziridine; diazooxoester; diazo compound; ketene; oxazoline; ring expansion; Introduction Oxazoline derivatives are an important class of nitrogen and oxygen-containing five-membered unsaturated heterocycles [1] and widely exist in

• heating, diazo esters 1 undergo a Wolff rearrangement to generate ethoxycarbonylketenes A by loss of nitrogen. The nucleophilic attack of 2-arylaziridine 2 on the ketene moiety produces zwitterionic intermediates B, in which the aziridinium is opened to form the benzylic carbocation stabilized through the

Halides as versatile anions in asymmetric anion-binding organocatalysis

• Lukas Schifferer,
• Martin Stinglhamer,
• Kirandeep Kaur and
• Olga García Macheño

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2270–2286, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.145

• ion pair with the chloride of the N-acyl(iso)quinolinium intermediate II. Hence, the reaction would follow a SN1-type mechanism via anion-binding catalysis. In Jacobsen’s report, the acylating agent 2,2,2-trichloroethyl chloroformate (TrocCl) and nucleophilic silyl ketene acetals were employed to

• ][75][76]. For this purpose, based on their initial findings in 2008 [38], the enantioselective addition of silyl ketene acetals to racemic 1-chloroisochromane (73) was more closely examined (Scheme 16) [73][74][75][76]. In this type of reaction, thiourea catalyst 76 actively engages in the ionization

• enantioselectivity, but the catalyst itself accommodates the anion by adopting a helical conformation upon complexation (Scheme 18a) [84][85][86]. Initial studies proved these systems highly effective for the enantioselective Reissert reaction of quinolines with silyl ketene acetals [22], which could be later

Constrained thermoresponsive polymers – new insights into fundamentals and applications

• Patricia Flemming,
• Alexander S. Münch,
• Andreas Fery and
• Petra Uhlmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2123–2163, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.138

• cyclic ketene acetals [277]. This copolymer also showed a well-controllable reversible UCST behavior in aqueous solutions. In 2020, Zhao et al. reported that by incorporating azobenzene functionalities into polyacrylamide copolymers, the responsive UCST behavior was furthermore tuneable via light