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

• selective synthesis owing to their unprecedented catalytic activity and selectivity. Advances in the field of protein engineering have made enzymatic catalysis more amenable to enantioselective organic synthesis in the past decade. Recent advances in the development of synergistic catalytic systems

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

• transition states. This integrated control framework provides a rational basis for designing reaction conditions to optimize selectivity and efficiency in organic synthesis. In 2014, the Liu group developed an Au(I)-catalyzed cascade cyclization strategy for synthesizing polysubstituted naphthalenes using

• al. (Scheme 11) [18]. The pathway selectivity was regulated by modulating substituents on the terminal alkyne. When the alkyne was unsubstituted, the vinylidene intermediate 48 was generated via a 5-exo-dig cyclization, which subsequently underwent protonolysis to yield the bicyclo[3.2.1]oct-2-ene

• -substituted internal alkynes underwent exclusive 8-endo-dig cyclization, efficiently delivering the strained dibenzo[b,d]azocine 56 (Scheme 12, path b). Distinct activation modes governed the selectivity, where regioselective terminal gold coordination triggered 7-exo-dig cyclization in terminal alkynes

Research towards selective inhibition of the CLK3 kinase

• Vinay Kumar Singh,
• Frédéric Justaud,
• Dabbugoddu Brahmaiah,
• Nangunoori Sampath Kumar,
• Blandine Baratte,
• Thomas Robert,
• Stéphane Bach,
• Chada Raji Reddy,
• Nicolas Levoin and
• René L. Grée

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2250–2259, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.172

• selective inhibitor of CLK1, -2 and -4, with no activity on CLK3 [23][24], to obtain a new derivative VS-77, which reached submicromolar activity on CLK3. Extensive molecular modeling studies have been used here to design VS-77 and to propose a model to explain the selectivity observed. Strategy and Design

Pd-catalyzed dehydrogenative arylation of arylhydrazines to access non-symmetric azobenzenes, including tetra-ortho derivatives

• Loris Geminiani,
• Kathrin Junge,
• Matthias Beller and
• Jean-François Soulé

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2234–2242, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.170

• (allyl)2 in DME with strong base (Cs2CO3) favors C–N-bond coupling, which may yield products resulting from arylation at either the terminal or internal nitrogen atoms. The selectivity can be influenced by the steric hindrance of the phosphine ligands and/or the substrates. Once N,N-diarylhydrazine is

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

• ][94]. Electrochemical transformations used renewable and clean electricity as a source of electrons and electron holes to generate radical species, showing several superiorities such as safety, economy, high selectivity, scalability, mild reaction conditions, powerful efficiency, environment-friendly

• anodic oxidation and AcO− capture. The hydrolysis of F then occurred to afford the final product 26a. This protocol featured with some advantages such as without any oxidants and metal catalysts, simple operation, good yields, high selectivity and wide substrate scope. Isoindolinone could be also

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

• synthesized by the sol–gel method. The 5Mg/SiO2 catalyst showed the highest activity in terms of selectivity and yield because of its suitable basic and acidic density. The addition of Mn to the 5Mg/SiO2 (1Mn-5Mg/SiO2) catalyst as week acidic side increased the selectivity towards 3-HPA. According to reaction

• presence of the photocatalyst provokes an impressive five-fold rise in the conversion rate (3.81 mmol/g) without compromising the high selectivity towards the two trioses (glyceraldehyde, 46.4%, and dihydroxyacetone, 32.9%). Okamoto and co-workers developed a new hydroxyapatite (HAp)-loaded flow system for

• 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

Discovery of cytotoxic indolo[1,2-c]quinazoline derivatives through scaffold-based design

• Daniil V. Khabarov,
• Valeria A. Litvinova,
• Lyubov G. Dezhenkova,
• Dmitry N. Kaluzhny,
• Alexander S. Tikhomirov and
• Andrey E. Shchekotikhin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2062–2071, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.161

• and enhance cytotoxicity. Our results highlight that 12-aminomethyl derivatives exhibited notable cytotoxicity against tumor cell lines, with the highest activity observed for compound 9c, which showed significant selectivity toward tumor cells. In contrast, while the compounds demonstrated planar

• sensitivity of the indole moiety, resulting in poor selectivity and formation of complex product mixtures. In particular, Jones oxidation of 2 gave the corresponding 6-oxoindolo[1,2-c]quinazoline-12-carboxylic acid (3) in a low yield (Scheme 1) making it necessary to look another synthetic pathway. Of

• evaluation. The antiproliferative activity of the novel indolo[1,2-c]quinazoline derivatives was evaluated against several human cancer cell lines, including colon carcinoma HCT116, lung adenocarcinoma A549, and chronic myeloid leukemia K562. To estimate selectivity for non-malignant cells human skin

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

• proposal is that toussaintine C was isolated as a racemic mixture, and sarglamides A and B are derived from one enantiomer of toussaintine C while sarglamides C–E are derived from the other one. The Diels–Alder cycloadditions are basically proceeded through endo-selectivity. The isopropyl group in α

• invented. Moreover, bioinspired total synthesis involving visible light and enzymes are new significant trends in this field, and these techniques have demonstrated great power in achieving unprecedented selectivity and reactivity. Since nature still prevails in rapid generating molecular complexity and

• achieving selectivity, it is unarguably that the field of bioinspired total synthesis still has a long way to go. Representative natural products with biomimetic total synthesis. Bioinspired total synthesis of chabranol (2010). Proposed biosynthetic pathway of monocerin-family natural products. Bioinspired

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

• concept of multicomponent-switched reactions [6] allows to tune the selectivity of MCRs and direct them into several different pathways. That is why the study of multicomponent heterocyclizations of aromatic aldehydes, compounds with an active methylene group and aminoazoles, for example with 3-amino

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

• the reaction selectivity can be directed towards the formation of arylated dienes 10, which would directly contribute to our previous work [26]. Therefore, we performed optimization of the arylation conditions (Table 1) to improve the reaction selectivity towards the aryldiene 10a formation, indicated

• -donating substituents demonstrated higher yields (p-Tol > p-BrC6H4) (Table 2, entries 3 and 4). The p-bromo-substituted iodane I-6, albeit in a more modest yield, gave the diene 10d with 98:2 selectivity. Switching to the more sterically challenged triisopropylsilyl (TIPS) group (Table 2, entry 2) resulted

• using the symmetrical dithiophen-2-yliodonium p-tosylate (I-7). It should be noted that all products 8 were obtained with exclusive (E)-selectivity. Tetrahydrofuran 8a and some analogous compounds could be synthesized previously from alcohol 7d, but in two steps, employing a halogen electrophile-induced

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

• excellent site selectivity during the Bz protection. The assembly of the azabicyclic core was achieved in two steps from 291 via reductive amination followed by oxidative removal of the p-methoxybenzyl (PMB) group, giving heptacyclic compound 292. Finally, (+)-18-benzoyldavisinol (293) was synthesized 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

• multiplicity of reaction types between rhodium carbenoids and the many different co-substrate classes, and the catalyst-driven selectivity between these pathways. The probes were screened for activity against Trypanosma brucei, and four probes with promising anti-trypanosomal activity were identified

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

• , phosphine oxides, and bisphosphonates, allows for tailored modifications that enhance selectivity, bioavailability, and reduce potential side effects [8][9][10][11][12][13]. This versatility makes them valuable not only as drugs but also as intermediates in synthetic organic chemistry, facilitating access

• normal fibroblasts (HSF) compared to cancer cells, the differences were moderate (less than twofold). These results suggest a modest preferential cytotoxicity toward cancer cells, particularly in the case of compound 2 against MCF7, though further studies are needed to establish meaningful selectivity

Systematic pore lipophilization to enhance the efficiency of an amine-based MOF catalyst in the solvent-free Knoevenagel reaction

• Pricilla Matseketsa,
• Margret Kumbirayi Ruwimbo Pagare and
• Tendai Gadzikwa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1854–1863, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.144

• -workers. In two separate reports, they synthesized well-defined MOFs composed of three different linkers: a proline-functionalized linker acted as the catalytic unit, while two auxiliary linkers were varied to alter catalyst activity and enantioselectivity [24], or product selectivity [25]. In those works

• pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries [38][39]. Various types of catalysts are used to enhance the efficiency and selectivity of the Knoevenagel reaction, including Lewis acids, ureas/ thioureas, amino acids, and bases such as alkali metal hydroxides, alkali metal alkoxide, amines, etc. [37][40][41][42][43

Fe-catalyzed efficient synthesis of 2,4- and 4-substituted quinolines via C(sp²)–C(sp²) bond scission of styrenes

• Prafull A. Jagtap,
• Manish M. Petkar,
• Vaishnavi R. Sawant and
• Bhalchandra M. Bhanage

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1799–1807, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.142

• , FeCl3·6H2O provided the best results (Table 1, entry 2). A further reduction in catalyst loading from 25 mol % to 20 mol % and 10 mol % resulted in a noticeable decrease in both selectivity and conversion efficiency (Table 1, entries 7 and 8). This is likely due to insufficient C(sp2)–C(sp2) bond

• considerably reduced both the conversion and selectivity (Table 1, entry 14). Furthermore, when K2S2O8 was used as the oxidizing agent instead of O2, a considerable drop in both conversion and selectivity was observed. Having identified satisfactory conditions, we sought to examine the scope and generality of

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

• defined by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as substances used for diagnosing, relieving, treating, or preventing diseases [1]. Traditional forms of drugs typically have a systemic effect, reaching both healthy and diseased areas, leading to a lack of selectivity, low bioavailability, and limited

• -step synthesis, convenient modification that can be achieved by introducing functional groups, electron rich and hydrophobic cavities that can effectively recognize electron deficient or neutral guest molecules, and high selectivity in binding with the guest. Their applications are extensive in the

• molecules and high-selectivity binding in drug-controlled release. Many calix/pillar[n]arene hosts are soluble in water, particularly macrocycles that are modified with carboxyl and phosphate groups. Moreover, their amphiphilic modification ability allows easy self-assembly into functional materials like

Convenient alternative synthesis of the Malassezia-derived virulence factor malassezione and related compounds

• Karu Ramesh and
• Stephen L. Bearne

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1730–1736, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.135

• to form a tert-butyl ester, leading to unwanted side products and reduced selectivity. Once the acid was protected, the Boc group could be selectively introduced onto the indole nitrogen without side reactions. Overall, this sequence ensured clean N-Boc protection with minimal side reactions and

Approaches to stereoselective 1,1'-glycosylation

• Daniele Zucchetta and
• Alla Zamyatina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1700–1718, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.133

• precursors [38][39][40][41][42]. This emphasizes the importance of reliable and reproducible approaches for the stereoselective synthesis of unsymmetrically orthogonally protected nonreducing disaccharides. While the desired anomeric selectivity on the side of the glycosyl donor can often be achieved by

• were readily prepared by self-condensation of the corresponding acetylated methyl 1,2-orthoacetates using BF3·OEt2 as a promoter [55]. While the 1,2-orthoester functionality in the glycosyl donor 17 directed the 1,2-trans selectivity towards the formation of an α-mannosidic linkage, the anomeric β

• selectivity in glycosylations with various types of nucleophiles [67][68]. This remarkable stereoselectivity has been attributed to intermolecular hydrogen bonding, which forms a transient tether between the glycosyl donor and acceptor, thereby guiding the reaction towards a preferred stereochemical outcome

Continuous-flow-enabled intensification in nitration processes: a review of technological developments and practical applications over the past decade

• Feng Zhou,
• Chuansong Duanmu,
• Yanxing Li,
• Jin Li,
• Haiqing Xu,
• Pan Wang and
• Kai Zhu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1678–1699, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.132

• /selectivity through optimized parameters (microwave energy, temperature, feed composition) [11]. Recent years have witnessed growing adoption of the continuous-flow technology in nitration processes across laboratory and industrial scales, driven by the reaction's classification as a highly hazardous chemical

• -flow nitration innovatively reimagines conventional methods for managing exothermic and selectivity-sensitive reactions, systematically analyzing four distinct approaches (nitration with mixed acids; nitration with fuming nitric acid; vapor-phase nitration; nitration with solid acid catalysts) to

• regioselectivity and product purity. Nitrating reagents: Nitrating reagents play a pivotal role in determining the efficiency, selectivity, and safety of nitration processes, with their selection being fundamentally dependent on the nature of the substrate and desired reaction outcomes. Analytical data (Figure 4a

Structural analysis of stereoselective galactose pyruvylation toward the synthesis of bacterial capsular polysaccharides

• Tsun-Yi Chiang,
• Mei-Huei Lin,
• Chun-Wei Chang,
• Jinq-Chyi Lee and
• Cheng-Chung Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1671–1677, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.131

• position. Additionally, THF was used as a solvent to enhance the α-selectivity of the reaction [41][42][43]. Next, while both compounds 8 and 9 can act as acceptors, compound 9, a primary alcohol, exhibits greater nucleophilicity. Using the TolSCl/AgOTf promoter system at −70 °C, the β-linked disaccharide

• 10 was formed, giving 71% yield (α/β = 1:6). According to the RRV/Aka platform [44], compound 9 is a robust nucleophile, with an Aka value of 12 [45]. This high nucleophilicity favors a SN2-like mechanism, promoting β-selectivity [46]. Using the difference in acceptor reactivity and activation method

• β-selectivity due to the neighboring group effect [41][48][49][50]. Subsequently, treatment with triethylsilane (Et₃SiH) and trimethylsilyl trifluoromethanesulfonate (TMSOTf) led to the opening of the benzylidene ring and removal of the TMS group, yielding compound 14, which can serve as an acceptor

Formal synthesis of a selective estrogen receptor modulator with tetrahydrofluorenone structure using [3 + 2 + 1] cycloaddition of yne-vinylcyclopropanes and CO

• Jing Zhang,
• Guanyu Zhang,
• Hongxi Bai and
• Zhi-Xiang Yu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1639–1644, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.127

• have 75-fold selectivity of ERβ over Erα [12]. Molecules III and IV (Scheme 1A) with an additional pyrazole ring compared to I and II had good pharmacokinetic properties that had overcome the problems of rapid clearance and low oral bioavailability executed by previous molecules [13][14]. A series of

• bridged tetrahydrofluorenone derivatives, represented by molecules V and VI, showed significant ERβ binding affinity and high selectivity [15][16][17][18][19]. So far, there are only two routes for accessing bridged tetrahydrofluorenone derivative VI. The first one shown in Scheme 2A includes a Robinson

On the aromaticity and photophysics of 1-arylbenzo[a]imidazo[5,1,2-cd]indolizines as bicolor fluorescent molecules for barium tagging in the study of double-beta decay of ¹³⁶Xe

• Eric Iván Velazco-Cabral,
• Fernando Auria-Luna,
• Juan Molina-Canteras,
• Miguel A. Vázquez,
• Iván Rivilla and
• Fernando P. Cossío

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1627–1638, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.126

• efficiency of crown ethers as components in cation-selective fluorescent probes has been extensively explored [7][30], to the best of our knowledge no previous computational DFT studies on the selectivity of crown ethers of different sizes with Ba2+ have been reported. Therefore, we explored (Scheme 2A) the

3-Aryl-2H-azirines as annulation reagents in the Ni(II)-catalyzed synthesis of 1H-benzo[4,5]thieno[3,2-b]pyrroles

• Julia I. Pavlenko,
• Pavel A. Sakharov,
• Anastasiya V. Agafonova,
• Derenik A. Isadzhanyan,
• Alexander F. Khlebnikov and
• Mikhail S. Novikov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1595–1602, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.123

• reaction carried out in the presence of 5 mol % of NiSO4 gave not only dimer 4, but also the annulation product, compound 3a. Further optimization of the reaction conditions aimed at suppressing the formation of dimer 4 showed that nickel chelates exhibit enhanced selectivity in catalyzing the annulation

• -catalyzed reaction proceeds with low diastereoselectivity. The significant difference in selectivity can be explained by the fact that, in contrast to the Ni(II)-catalyzed reaction depicted in Scheme 3, the copper(I) catalysis involves the coordination by the metal of both reaction partners, and the

General method for the synthesis of enaminones via photocatalysis

• Paula Pérez-Ramos,
• Raquel G. Soengas and
• Humberto Rodríguez-Solla

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1535–1543, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.116

• -bromochromones via a Michael reaction of an amine with an electron-deficient alkene moiety and subsequent photocatalyzed debromination. With this dual catalytic system, a range of structurally diverse enaminone derivatives have been achieved in good yields with total trans selectivity. Mechanistic studies

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

• selectivity, and in all cases formation of insertion products of both types, i. e., thioaminals 9 and dithioacetales 10, was observed (see Table 1). Chromatographic separation enabled the isolation of pure compounds, and the more stable dithioacetals 10 formed the more polar fraction. The less polar fraction