Visible-light-driven NHC and organophotoredox dual catalysis for the synthesis of carbonyl compounds

• Vasudevan Dhayalan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2584–2603, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.200

• /organophotocatalyzed oxidative Smiles rearrangement of O-aryl aldehydes 26 has been developed using oxygen as the terminal oxidant under visible-light dual catalysis. This approach afforded highly functionalized 2-hydroxyarylbenzoates 27, tolerating electron-deficient and electron-rich substituents. The C–O bond

• /photoredox catalyzed borylacylation of alkenes. NHC-catalyzed oxidative functionalization of cinnamaldehyde. NHC/photocatalyzed oxidative Smiles rearrangement. NHC-catalyzed synthesis of cyclohexanones through photocatalyzed annulation. Dual organocatalyzed meta-selective acylation of electron-rich arenes

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

• only certain precursors with certain specific oxidation patterns are competent to undergo this rearrangement. The same as other Illicium sesquiterpenes, the highly oxgenated and strained skeleton of illisimonin A has posed a significant challenge to synthetic chemists. To date, the research groups of

• directly, the team adopted a strategy involving rearrangement from the more accessible cis-pentalene isomer. They first assembled the cis-pentalene core through an elegant intramolecular Diels–Alder (IMDA) reaction. Subsequently, the conversion from cis to trans-pentalene was achieved via a semipinacol

• rearrangement. Finally, a White–Chen C–H oxidation [33][34][35] was employed to install the lactone ring, thereby completing the synthesis. The synthesis began with commercially available compound 19 and known compound 20 (Scheme 2). These were joined via an intermolecular aldol reaction to give adduct 21

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

• alkyne difunctionalization, furyl group installation, Achmatowicz rearrangement, and subsequent functional group manipulations provided intermediates 84 and 85. C5-acylation and methylation under kinetically controlled conditions followed by Sonogashira coupling yielded cyclization precursor 89

• ). The synthesis commenced with the preparation of key cyclization precursor 98 via Barbier coupling and Babler–Dauben oxidative rearrangement. A pivotal palladium-catalyzed Heck/carbonylative cyclization then efficiently furnished the ABC tricyclic core 99. Notably, adding N-formylsaccharin under a CO

Effect of a photoswitchable rotaxane on membrane permeabilization across lipid compositions

• Udyogi N. K. Conthagamage,
• Lilia Lopez,
• Zuliah A. Abdulsalam and
• Víctor García-López

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2498–2512, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.192

• rearrangement required for permeability modulation. Similarly, rotaxane 2 and axle 3 exhibit minimal release upon the five irradiation cycles, resulting in releases of 5% and 11%, respectively (Figure 4b, Table 1, and Supporting Information File 1, Figure S17). The slightly higher release caused by axle 3 may

• release upon irradiation. Rotaxane 4 starts at 34%, yielding a Δ release of 31% (65–34) due to reversible azobenzene isomerizations, whereas 1 starts at 6%, resulting in a larger Δ release of 53% (59–6). This indicates that while 4 induces a strong initial perturbation due to early membrane rearrangement

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

• conform to a sigmatropic rearrangement reaction [36]. Inspection of the changes in the bond lengths (Figure 2c) and Mayer bond orders (Figure 2d) along the IRC path clearly show that C19–C12 bond formation and C19–C3 bond cleavage are asynchronous. On the basis of these premises, we assume that the

Ex-situ generation of gaseous nitriles in two-chamber glassware for facile haloacetimidate synthesis

• Nikolai B. Akselvoll,
• Jonas T. Larsen and
• Christian M. Pedersen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2465–2469, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.188

• acetimidates through the Overman rearrangement [8][9]. Trifluoroacetonitrile is a highly toxic gas being of limited commercial availability and it can furthermore be difficult to get from the few commercial suppliers due to transport restrictions. This, together with local restrictions, because of the inherent

The intramolecular stabilizing effects of O-benzoyl substituents as a driving force of the acid-promoted pyranoside-into-furanoside rearrangement

• Alexey G. Gerbst,
• Sofya P. Nikogosova,
• Darya A. Rastrepaeva,
• Dmitry A. Argunov,
• Vadim B. Krylov and
• Nikolay E. Nifantiev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2456–2464, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.187

• equilibrium lie outside the carbohydrate ring system. Consideration of such effects is essential to rationalize the reactivity of structurally complex and densely protected carbohydrate compounds. Keywords: benzoylated galactofuranosides; DFT; DLPNO-CCSD(T); pyranoside-into-furanoside rearrangement

• furanose form through steric and electrostatic effects. In our previous work [24], we investigated the energetic aspects of the pyranoside-into-furanoside (PIF) rearrangement that proceeded under acid-promoted sulfation and whose mechanism was studied by us previously [25] along with the mechanism of

• observed another example of the PIF-rearrangement [31] where treatment with catalytic amounts of TfOH in CH2Cl2 unexpectedly shifted the equilibrium between selectively protected galactoside 1 and furanoside 2 in favor of the furanose form (Figure 3A), thus opening a new route towards Galf-containing

Transformation of the cyclohexane ring to the cyclopentane fragment of biologically active compounds

• Natalya Akhmetdinova,
• Ilgiz Biktagirov and
• Liliya Kh. Faizullina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2416–2446, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.185

• intramolecular aldol reaction (recyclization or rearrangement). This method is applicable to triterpenoids, such as tirucallane, ursane, oleanane and dammarane types (pathway A), as well as for triterpenoids of the ursane and dammarane types (pathway B) [27]. In [28], a convenient method for ring contraction is

• (III) and iodine(III), and Wolff rearrangement. 2.1 Benzilic acid and semipinacol-type rearrangements The strategy of ring contraction using the benzilic acid-type rearrangement was used by Zhang et al. [38] for the asymmetric synthesis of 4β-acetoxyprobotryane-9β,15α-diol (52). This compound contains

• aldehyde 53 [39] (Scheme 10). The key steps in this synthesis are based on an asymmetric rhodium-catalyzed [4 + 2] cycloaddition reaction [40], followed by a unique benzilic acid-type rearrangement under very mild conditions [41]. A step-by-step mechanism for the benzilic acid-type rearrangement of

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

• Barton–McCombie deoxygenation. The extra ethyl carboxylate was removed via a sequence of LiOH hydrolysis and a Curtius rearrangement using DPPA to form the corresponding acyl azide. Ketone 50 was produced in 98% yield over two steps. The newly formed ketone functionality enabled the introduction of the

• sequence of Boekelheide rearrangement (56 → 57), acetate hydrolysis, DMP oxidation and Cbz removal. Based on these results, Tsukano and co-workers suggested that a mono-N-oxide intermediate could be involved in the biosynthesis of these dimeric complanadine alkaloids. Importantly, access to both

• of the electron-rich pyrrole group is essential for the key C–C bond formation. In the next step, the pyrrole group was converted to the pyridine group encoded by the natural product. This single-atom skeletal editing step (67 → 68) was achieved using the Ciamician–Dennstedt rearrangement, a reaction

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

• can further undergo ring-opening or rearrangement reaction to assemble complex molecular frameworks. Additionally, quinone photoredox reactions involving single-electron transfer (SET) processes provide novel strategies for the stereoselective synthesis of useful structures such as spiroketals. This

• by the Yang group [22]. Installation of the hydroxymethyl group in 4 was achieved through sequential formylation and reduction. Compound 4 then underwent a one-pot, substrate-controlled diastereoselective Johnson−Claisen rearrangement/acetylation to install ester 5. Treating 5 with m-CPBA (meta

• -chloroperoxybenzoic acid) induced epoxidation, which was then followed by a Meinwald rearrangement to accomplish aldehyde 7. From 7, a sequence involving silyl enol ether formation, Simmons−Smith cyclopropanation, and acid-mediated regioselective ring-opening installed the C8 quaternary methyl group in 10. Subsequent

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

• dichloromethane (DCM), gold(I)-catalyzed alkyne activation initiated 6-endo-dig cyclization of the conjugated alkene. Subsequent alkyl migration formed four-membered ring intermediate 9, which underwent fragmentation and rearrangement to yield phenanthrene derivative 10 (Scheme 3, path a). When tetrahydrofuran

• terminal alkyne proceeded via a gold(I)-catalyzed propargyl-Claisen rearrangement, generating a β-allenic intermediate 35. This intermediate underwent a Markovnikov-type nucleophilic addition followed by a 5-exo-trig cyclization to stereoselectively construct the furo[3,2-b]furan bicyclic framework 36

• ] intermediate 62 (Scheme 14, path a). When a less nucleophilic indole was used as the nucleophile, a Wagner–Meerwein rearrangement occurred, leading to the formation of a pyrido[4,3-b]indole product 63. When Hantzsch ester (HEH) was used as the nucleophile, the imine intermediate 62 was reduced to product 64

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

• and hydroxyketones. The catalyst could be recovered and reused five times without decreasing its selectivity and activity. Mechanistically, the reaction involves a Heyns-type rearrangement and subsequent intramolecular olefination (Scheme 22) [96]. Arandia et al. reported the application of the

• toward useful biobased functional compounds or intermediates with applications in fuels, polymer chemistry and fine organic synthesis (CH activation, Piancatelli rearrangement, etc.). Conversion of furfural to alcohols, aldehydes and ketones: One of the most important transformations of furfural is its

• , arising from a nucleophilic attack of a furan carbon atom of one furfural molecule onto the aldehyde of a second one, giving 2-(4-furfur-2-al)-4-hydroxy-2-cyloepenten-1-one (Scheme 64), resulting from a Piancatelli rearrangement. This latter can further evolve towards more complex humin precursors by

The application of desymmetric enantioselective reduction of cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds in the total synthesis of terpenoid and alkaloid natural products

• Dong-Xing Tan and
• Fu-She Han

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2085–2102, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.164

• reduction of 72, affording the hydroxyketone 74 in 57% yield with 91% ee. Protection of the secondary alcohol in 74 followed by Beckmann rearrangement led to lactam 75. Oxidation state modifications and functional group transformations of 75 afforded ketone 76. Next, the 1,2-addition of 76 with vinyl iodine

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

• as a single isomer, which further underwent a migratory rearrangement and afforded iboluteine. On the other hand, oxidation of ibogaine with molecular iodine achieved both indole and amine oxidations, delivering lactam 35. Intermediate 35 could be oxidized with H2O2 through C–C bond cleavage to give

• Friedel–Crafts reaction. Next, the cyclohexadienone moiety could be activated by an acid to undergo a rearrangement reaction to provide eupomatilone. The exocyclic THF ring might exist as diverse forms such as hemiacetal, acetal, lactone or acetal-linked dimer. The (hemi)acetal moiety could generate an

• rearrangement under the conditions of H2SO4/MeOH, since their isolation of the natural products [32]. However, other critical bioinspired transformations have not yet been explored, which prompted us to initiate this study. Guided by this biogenetic proposal, we conducted a series of reactions to probe the

Aryl iodane-induced cascade arylation–1,2-silyl shift–heterocyclization of propargylsilanes under copper catalysis

• Rasma Kroņkalne,
• Rūdolfs Beļaunieks,
• Armands Sebris,
• Anatoly Mishnev and
• Māris Turks

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1984–1994, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.154

• aminopentynes 16a–c underwent allylic rearrangement, affording tetrahydropyridines 9 (Scheme 6). The tetrahydropyridine core was confirmed unambiguously by X-ray structure analysis of dinitrobenzamide 9c. More electron-rich acylamides reacted faster and gave less side-products, compared to more electron-poor

Photochemical reduction of acylimidazolium salts

• Michael Jakob,
• Nick Bechler,
• Hassan Abdelwahab,
• Fabian Weber,
• Janos Wasternack,
• Leonardo Kleebauer,
• Jan P. Götze and
• Matthew N. Hopkinson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1973–1983, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.153

• recently proposed by Marzo and co-workers in an NHC-mediated coupling reaction with alkyl halides mediated by (TMS)3SiH [55]. The O-silylated product 5 could result from a subsequent radical C-silylation followed by a Brook-type rearrangement process [56]. Interestingly, performing the TESH-mediated

Enantioselective desymmetrization strategy of prochiral 1,3-diols in natural product synthesis

• Lihua Wei,
• Rui Yang,
• Zhifeng Shi and
• Zhiqiang Ma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1932–1963, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.151

• Lewis acid-mediated semi-pinacol rearrangement, this work involved a CRL-catalyzed desymmetrization of prochiral diol 51 (prepared from aldehyde 50 in four steps), providing monoester 53 in 57% yield with 83% ee. Notably, 1-ethoxyvinyl 2-furoate (52) was selected as the acyl donor in this step to

• induced rearrangement of 133 to form the pyranose skeleton of ʟ-cladinose (134). Finally, the derivative, thiocladinoside 135 was then prepared from 134 in two additional steps. The total synthesis of azithromycin [60] was reported shortly after completion of 135 (Scheme 19). For the synthesis of fragment

Preparation of spirocyclic oxindoles by cyclisation of an oxime to a nitrone and dipolar cycloaddition

• Beth L. Ritchie,
• Alexandra Longcake and
• Iain Coldham

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1890–1896, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.146

• ][10][11][12][13]. Of note, Cook and co-workers described an elegant approach using tryptophan as a starting material and an oxidative rearrangement of an indole that allows access to a variety of spirooxindole alkaloids from the Alstonia genus [14]. An efficient way to construct cyclic nitrogen

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

• rearrangement 127 (Scheme 42) [130]. Besides influencing the thermal stability, the presence of substituents also increases the conjugation, typically giving a red-shifted closed-ring isomer. Electron-donating substituents were also found to have a strong red-shift effect and to increase the molar absorption

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

• methoxymethyl group cleavage, O-to-N rearrangement, and isomerization of the double bond. An oxazoline ring formation in the resulting unsaturated amides provided the corresponding enantioenriched vinyloxazoline. The reactivity of the electron-deficient double bond in the vinyloxazoline was explored in several

• ][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

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

• Cope rearrangements [20]. More recently, Alabugin and co-workers reported that the gold(I)-catalyzed propargyl rearrangement depicted in Scheme 1b also follows a concerted oxonia Claisen pathway (via an aromatic TS) rather than through a higher barrier 6-endo-dig cyclization [21], which provides

• reactions between t-BuN3 and [Au]CP complex (black lines) and the analogous process involving [Mg]CP complex and projected onto the N···P bond-forming distance. (a) Diels–Alder cycloaddition reaction between butadiene and ethylene. (b) Gold(I)-catalyzed propargyl rearrangement. Representative

Thermodynamic equilibrium between locally excited and charge transfer states in perylene–phenothiazine dyads

• Issei Fukunaga,
• Shunsuke Kobashi,
• Yuki Nagai,
• Hiroki Horita,
• Hiromitsu Maeda and
• Yoichi Kobayashi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1577–1586, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.121

• . Conversely, the deceleration of the early component (6.2 ps vs 2.4 ps for PTZ(TPA)2), likely associated with solvent reorientation, may be explained by the larger dipole rearrangement induced by excitation in this asymmetric molecular framework, which in turn requires more time for the reorganization of the

Ambident reactivity of enolizable 5-mercapto-1H-tetrazoles in trapping reactions with in situ-generated thiocarbonyl S-methanides derived from sterically crowded cycloaliphatic thioketones

• Grzegorz Mlostoń,
• Małgorzata Celeda,
• Marcin Palusiak,
• Heinz Heimgartner,
• Marta Denel-Bobrowska and
• Agnieszka B. Olejniczak

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1508–1519, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.113

• publications [15], or/and from secondary processes, like an intramolecular rearrangement. Taking into account the postulated basicity (and nucleophilicity) of thiocarbonyl S-methanides 1 derived from cycloaliphatic thioketones [6], the initiating step of these processes can be presented as protonation of the

• depends on both steric factors in 11 and the electronic structure of the reactive anion 12. In general, growing steric hindrance prefers the S-attack and, very likely, hinders rearrangement leading to thioaminals 9. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that no formation of products 9 is observed with

• initial products are thioaminals 9, which under the reaction conditions or later on, during the storage in CDCl3 solution, undergo an intramolecular rearrangement presented in Scheme 7. Moreover, the differences observed in the structures of products obtained in reactions with structurally similar

Heterologous biosynthesis of cotylenol and concise synthesis of fusicoccane diterpenoids

• Ye Yuan,
• Zhenhua Guan,
• Xue-Jie Zhang,
• Nanyu Yao,
• Wenling Yuan,
• Yonghui Zhang,
• Ying Ye and
• Zheng Xiang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1489–1495, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.111

• (7) and R (8) (Scheme 1). The secondary hydroxy group of brassicicene I was selectively TBS-protected in the presence of TBSOTf and 2,6-lutidine to give compound 13 in 93% yield. Then, compound 13 underwent oxidative rearrangement with PCC to afford ketone 14 in 61% yield. Under Luche reduction

Wittig reaction of cyclobisbiphenylenecarbonyl

• Taito Moribe,
• Junichiro Hirano,
• Hideaki Takano,
• Hiroshi Shinokubo and
• Norihito Fukui

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1454–1461, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.107

• . Consequently, figure-eight molecules often exhibit fascinating properties, such as unusual rearrangement reactions [9] and efficient circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) [10][11][12]. Cyclobisbiphenylenecarbonyl (CBBC) 1 is a figure-eight macrocycle, which is readily synthesized from commercially available