Rhodium-catalyzed intramolecular reductive aldol-type cyclization: Application for the synthesis of a chiral necic acid lactone

• Motoyuki Isoda,
• Kazuyuki Sato,
• Kenta Kameda,
• Kana Wakabayashi,
• Ryota Sato,
• Hideki Minami,
• Yukiko Karuo,
• Atsushi Tarui,
• Kentaro Kawai and
• Masaaki Omote

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1642–1648, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.176

• the substrates through an η6 binding intermediate by DFT calculation [49]. Although another mechanism could not be denied in which a Z-enolate intermediate changes to an E-enolate under thermodynamic control, we propose the following mechanism on the basis of the above results (Scheme 3). The Rh–H

• complex 5 from [RhCl(cod)]2 and Et2Zn would generate predominantly the corresponding E-enolate 6 via 1,4-reduction, which is stabilized through η6 binding with benzene ring of the substrate. Subsequent transmetalation with zinc species 4 readily reacts with the carbonyl group to form the intramolecular C

• . eThe reaction was carried out using RhCl(PPh3)3 in THF at rt. Detection of metal-enolate and proposed mechanism of intramolecular cyclization. Synthetic route towards chiral necic acid lactone (2S,3S,4R)-2j. Conditions: a) CH3SO2NH2, AD-mix-β, t-BuOH, H2O. b) SO3·Py, Et3N, DMSO, CH2Cl2. c) DMAP, CH2Cl2

Synthetic study toward the diterpenoid aberrarone

• Liang Shi,
• Zhiyu Gao,
• Yiqing Li,
• Yuanhao Dai,
• Yu Liu,
• Lili Shi and
• Hong-Dong Hao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1625–1628, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.173

• through the corresponding lithium enolate occurred from the convex face of the bicyclic ring system [37]. After these two continuous stereocenters were successfully installed, the expected challenging all-carbon quaternary center at C1 was constructed utilizing the Nagata reagent (Et2AlCN). By using this

Oxa-Michael-initiated cascade reactions of levoglucosenone

• Julian Klepp,
• Thomas Bousfield,
• Hugh Cummins,
• Sarah V. A.-M. Legendre,
• Jason E. Camp and
• Ben W. Greatrex

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1457–1462, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.151

• product 6n was also isolated (Table 1, entry 17), analogous to that reported for the reaction of 1, furfural and hydroxide in water [16]. The isolation of 6n was attributed to a slow second conjugate addition of the enolate (the reaction of 6 and 8, Scheme 1), while 7 was formed via an endocyclic

• presumed to start with an oxa-Michael initiated aldol reaction promoted by a methoxide nucleophile giving enone 6 via enolate 8 (Scheme 1). A Rauhut–Currier-type reaction of 6 with the addition of another equivalent of 8, followed by a subsequent double β-elimination leads to the observed product 5. When

A one-pot electrochemical synthesis of 2-aminothiazoles from active methylene ketones and thioureas mediated by NH₄I

• Shang-Feng Yang,
• Pei Li,
• Zi-Lin Fang,
• Sen Liang,
• Hong-Yu Tian,
• Bao-Guo Sun,
• Kun Xu and
• Cheng-Chu Zeng

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1249–1255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.130

• can act as a bi-functional organocatalyst due to the existence of both Lewis base (NH2) and Brønsted acidic (COOH) sites. In the suggested mechanism, the carboxy group may polarize the carbonyl group of the active methylene ketone and the amino group as a Lewis base serves the formation of enolate to

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

• species to the α-ketoester 15 (Scheme 3) [6]. The ketoester 15 was synthesized by a chiral pool approach starting from (+)-3-carene derived cycloheptenone 13 [7][8] and aldehyde 12 (accessible from (R)-Roche ester [9]) via the γ-lactone 14. The ketoester moiety was established by an enolate hydroxylation

• also be used in photochemical reactions, as shown by Gramain et al. in the synthesis of the pyrrolizidine alkaloid (rac)-isoretronecanol (69, Scheme 11) [26]. A Claisen condensation of the lithium enolate of N-acetylpyrrolidine (66) with diethyl oxalate gave the ketoester 67. Irradiation of compound 67

Electrogenerated base-promoted cyclopropanation using alkyl 2-chloroacetates

• Kouichi Matsumoto,
• Yuta Hayashi,
• Kengo Hamasaki,
• Mizuki Matsuse,
• Hiyono Suzuki,
• Keiji Nishiwaki and
• Norihito Kawashita

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1116–1122, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.114

• reduction conditions of the solution containing 1 may generate an EGB, which reacts with 1 to produce anionic A. At the stage of the generation of the EGB, the reduction of 1 may generate an enolate ion such as E or F, which might serve as EGB, although other sources of EGBs cannot be denied [30][31

• -chloroacetates to cyclopropane derivatives has been developed. The reaction has been optimized, the scope and limitations have been investigated. Scale-up reactions were performed and satisfactory yields obtained. The generation of an EGB of the enolate ion from alkyl 2-chloroacetates is indicated. The current

Electrochemical hydrogenation of enones using a proton-exchange membrane reactor: selectivity and utility

• Koichi Mitsudo,
• Haruka Inoue,
• Yuta Niki,
• Eisuke Sato and
• Seiji Suga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1055–1061, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.107

• electroreduction of 1a would afford 2a directly and not via 4a. Electroreduction of acetophenone did not proceed efficiently, and 42.5% (GC ratio) of acetophenone was recovered with ethylbenzene as a major reduced product (Scheme 4b). We assumed that the reduction would proceed via an enol or enolate intermediate

Electroreductive coupling of 2-acylbenzoates with α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds: density functional theory study on product selectivity

• Naoki Kise and
• Toshihiko Sakurai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 956–962, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.95

• 2 and subsequent rearrangement to 3 are also discussed. In particular, the latter mechanism was studied using density functional theory (DFT) calculations and it was suggested that the ΔG for the cyclization step of an intermediate enolate anion determines the product selectivity. Results and

• Scheme 5. The first one is a radical addition of O-trimethylsilyl radical A, which is formed by a one-electron reduction of 1 and subsequent O-trimethylsilylation, to 2a and a following one-electron reduction of the resultant radical B to give enolate anion D (path a). The second one is an anionic

• -oxobutyl)phthalides 5 were produced as the sole products by the reaction of 1 with methyl vinyl ketone (2b). It was found by DFT calculations for the cyclization step of the intermediate enolate anions that the product selectivity was in good agreement with the free energy differences (∆G) in the

A trustworthy mechanochemical route to isocyanides

• Francesco Basoccu,
• Federico Cuccu,
• Federico Casti,
• Rita Mocci,
• Claudia Fattuoni and
• Andrea Porcheddu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 732–737, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.73

• attributed to their probable reaction mechanism where the nitrogen atom not only promotes the enolate derivative formation as already described in literature [33][34] but it may also generate a positively charged intermediate at the transition state [35], enhancing the nucleophilic substitution. Obviously

• (GC–MS analysis). Unexpectedly, the addition of Lewis acids, namely LiCl and BF3·Et2O, did not improve the enolate generation. The next step was searching the optimal conditions for a better conversion of 1f in 2f. These were found in the 1:2:7 ratios of the three components with the addition of 400

BINOL as a chiral element in mechanically interlocked molecules

• Matthias Krajnc and
• Jochen Niemeyer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 508–523, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.53

• then deprotonated by the amine to generate the enolate nucleophile. After the Michael addition, the anionic intermediate is protonated by the ammonium group to liberate the product. Although this cooperative catalysis is facilitated by the mechanical bond, the racemic background reaction only has a

Bioinspired tetraamino-bisthiourea chiral macrocycles in catalyzing decarboxylative Mannich reactions

• Hao Guo,
• Yu-Fei Ao,
• De-Xian Wang and
• Qi-Qiang Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 486–496, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.51

• , a plausible catalytic mechanism is represented in Figure 2. The MAHT substrate is deprotonated by one of the tertiary amine sites, and the formed enolate intermediate can be stabilized by hydrogen bonding-mediated ion-pair interaction within the macrocyclic cavity. The imine substrate is activated

• by one or both of the two thiourea sites through hydrogen bonding to accept the enolate attack. The chiral environment provided by the (S,S)-cyclohexanediamine part governed the face-selective attack and led to the R-configurated product. In the last step, the decarboxylation leads to the enolate of

• the thioester, which is more basic than the MAHT-enolate and can thus be protonated by the ammonium fragment in the macrocycle. This leads to the neutral product, which can easily escape from the macrocyclic cavity, releasing the macrocycle catalyst to enter the next catalytic cycle. As suggested by

Synthesis of 3,4,5-trisubstituted isoxazoles in water via a [3 + 2]-cycloaddition of nitrile oxides and 1,3-diketones, β-ketoesters, or β-ketoamides

• Md Imran Hossain,
• Md Imdadul H. Khan,
• Seong Jong Kim and
• Hoang V. Le

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 446–458, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.47

• , β-ketoesters or β-ketoamides are a commonly used 2-step route to 3,4,5-trisubstituted isoxazoles [24][25]. Xiao Zhou et al. recently reported a direct access to 3,4,5-trisubstituted isoxazoles via an enolate-mediated 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of β-functionalized ketones with nitrile oxides using

• organocatalysts (Figure 1) [26][27]. This enolate-mediated cycloaddition, however, requires long reaction time in organic solvents at high temperatures. Our current work was inspired by a recent report by Kesornpun et al., in which a cycloaddition of nitrile oxides and alkenes or alkynes was carried out in 0.1 M

Organocatalytic asymmetric nitroso aldol reaction of α-substituted malonamates

• Ekta Gupta,
• Narendra Kumar Vaishanv,
• Sandeep Kumar,
• Raja Krishnan Purshottam,
• Ruchir Kant and
• Kishor Mohanan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 217–224, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.25

• using a silver-BINAP catalyst combination [25]. Later, the same group could successfully tune the catalytic system to control the regioselectivity in the addition of metal enolate to nitrosoarenes to achieve an α-hydroxyamination [26]. Since then, several groups have shown the use of metal-catalyzed

• thiourea moiety with the oxygen of the nitrosobenzene. The tertiary amine, present in the catalyst acts as a base in assisting the deprotonation of the highly acidic malonamate to generate the corresponding enolate. Subsequently, a face-selective nucleophilic addition of the enolate to nitroso selective

Synthesis and late stage modifications of Cyl derivatives

• Phil Servatius and
• Uli Kazmaier

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 174–181, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.19

• , such as histone deacetylases. Keywords: chelated enolate; Claisen rearrangement; HDAC inhibitor; peptide; late stage modification; Introduction Among natural products, peptidic structures have entered the limelight due to their extraordinary biological activities [1]. Often found as secondary

• decided to take advantage of an asymmetric chelate enolate Claisen rearrangement, which should allow the stereoselective generation of the unusual amino acid, depending on the configuration of the chiral allylic alcohol used [41][42]. If a peptide Claisen rearrangement [43][44][45] is carried out with a

• usual conditions of an ester enolate Claisen rearrangement with zinc chloride as chelating metal gave the rearranged product in only 33% yield and a diastereomeric ratio of 93:7 (Table 1, entry 1). The reaction was kept at −45 °C overnight to suppress potential epimerization of the peptide. Generally

A two-phase bromination process using tetraalkylammonium hydroxide for the practical synthesis of α-bromolactones from lactones

• Yuki Yamamoto,
• Akihiro Tabuchi,
• Kazumi Hosono,
• Takanori Ochi,
• Kento Yamazaki,
• Shintaro Kodama,
• Akihiro Nomoto and
• Akiya Ogawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2906–2914, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.198

• -valerolactone (1a), has been limited. The main process for the bromination of δ-valerolactone (1a) was treating the lactone with lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) at −78 °C to first generate the corresponding enolate, trapping it with trimethylsilyl chloride (TMSCl) to form the enol silyl ether, followed by

α-Ketol and α-iminol rearrangements in synthetic organic and biosynthetic reactions

• Scott Benz and
• Andrew S. Murkin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2570–2584, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.172

• -promoted steps, beginning with a vinylogous α-ketol rearrangement to 46. Following protonation of the enolate and addition of hydroxide to the carbonyl on the D ring, 47 rearranges with loss of chloride to give enedione 48. Base-catalyzed isomerization yields 44, which is apparently more stable despite the

Advances in mercury(II)-salt-mediated cyclization reactions of unsaturated bonds

• Sumana Mandal,
• Raju D. Chaudhari and
• Goutam Biswas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2348–2376, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.153

• temperature. It was an example of cycloisomerization of 2-ethynylaniline derivatives utilizing mild reaction conditions (Scheme 50) [110]. Rong et al. had demonstrated the Hg(II)-salt-catalyzed enolate umpolung reaction for the efficient synthesis of various 3-indolinones and 3-coumaranones 174. They had

• Petasis–Ferrier-type cyclization, and finally nucleophilic addition of mercuric enolate to iminium results in the formation of azaspiro structure. Conclusion In conclusion, this review summarizes Hg(II)-salt-mediated cyclization reactions either for direct synthesis of cyclized products or as a part of

Base-free enantioselective S_N2 alkylation of 2-oxindoles via bifunctional phase-transfer catalysis

• Mili Litvajova,
• Emiliano Sorrentino,
• Brendan Twamley and
• Stephen J. Connon

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2287–2294, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.146

• ester moieties at C-3 have been shown to participate in enantioselective phase-transfer-catalysed alkylations promoted by ad-hoc designed quaternary ammonium salts derived from quinine bearing hydrogen-bond donating substituents. For the first time in such phase-transfer-catalysed enolate alkylations

• highly valuable synthetic building blocks [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Both pyrroloindolines 1 and spirooxindoles 2 are conceivably available from key 3,3-disubstituted intermediates 3, which could be prepared via an enantioselective SN2 alkylation involving enolate 3a (Figure 1B). The versatility of

• other hand, such electron-withdrawing groups, α to the reactive centre, dramatically changes the acidity of the substrate (and thus the reactivity of the enolate conjugate base) and as consequence its reactivity which can drastically impact the enantioselectivity in SN2 alkylation processes. In this

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

• proton of the enolizable β-ketoester 49 and thus activating the nucleophilic species. This enolate then adds to the cationic substrate from in situ upon halide abstraction of α-chloro amino acid derivatives 48 by the thiourea moiety of the bifunctional catalyst (Scheme 10c, key intermediate), leading to

Enantioenriched α-substituted glutamates/pyroglutamates via enantioselective cyclopropenimine-catalyzed Michael addition of amino ester imines

• Zara M. Seibel,
• Jeffrey S. Bandar and
• Tristan H. Lambert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2077–2084, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.134

• reported [45], for which a detailed transition state model was developed. In that study, it was determined that the reaction proceeds via several competing low-energy transition states involving both O–H and N–H enolate binding modes, E and Z enolate isomers, and a range of H-bonding and other noncovalent

• enolate geometry and N–H vs O–H binding). From this transition state, addition of the enolate to the acrylate followed by rapid proton transfer would lead to the glutamate derivative 10 (path a, red dashed line). A competing pathway involving bond formation between the acrylate α-carbon and the imine

• carbon, either in a concerted fashion or via subsequent addition of a putative acrylate enolate intermediate, would lead to the cycloaddition byproduct 11 (path b, red and blue dashed lines). It should be noted that cyclopropenimine catalysts do not promote the cyclization of 10 to 11. From this model

Asymmetric organocatalyzed synthesis of coumarin derivatives

• Natália M. Moreira,
• Lorena S. R. Martelli and
• Arlene G. Corrêa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1952–1980, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.128

• deprotonated by a base, affording an ammonium ylide/enolate. Meanwhile, the Re-face attack is favored after interaction of squaramide portion of the catalyst with coumarin. Then, a Michael addition followed by intramolecular cyclization affords the desired product 75, as shown in Scheme 23. An enantioselective

• catalyst provides the formation of an ionic pair with coumarin enolate and activation of the imine by hydrogen bonding with the secondary amine, resulting in products 113 with excellent yields and high enantioselectivity [75]. This transformation draws attention because it uses only 0.1 mol % of catalyst

Development of N-F fluorinating agents and their fluorinations: Historical perspective

• Teruo Umemoto,
• Yuhao Yang and
• Gerald B. Hammond

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1752–1813, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.123

• reagents, a match process which minimizes side reactions. Thus, these N-fluoropyridinium salts made possible the fluorination of a diversity of nucleophilic organic compounds with different reactivities ranging across aromatics, carbanions (Grignard reagents, enolate anions), active methylene compounds

• no α-proton to the N-F site proved to be a good choice for fluorinating enolate anions (Scheme 24). The side reaction, involving HF elimination, and which was a problem in reactions with the Barnette’s reagents 4-1 having the α-proton(s) except for 4-1b [26], was avoided here. The HF elimination is a

•  30). NFSI is a stable and non-hygroscopic crystalline solid with a mp of 114–116 °C. NFSI was shown to fluorinate a variety of nucleophiles. As seen in Scheme 31, trimethylsilyl enol ethers, enolate anions of ketones and esters, and aryl- and vinyllithiums were fluorinated with NFSI in moderate to

A recent overview on the synthesis of 1,4,5-trisubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles

• Pezhman Shiri,
• Ali Mohammad Amani and
• Thomas Mayer-Gall

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1600–1628, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.114

• ) [45]. In 2020, Ramachary et al. reported the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of various enones 43 and 46 with less reactive vinyl/alkyl/aryl azides 44 via an enolate-mediated organocatalyst. This protocol provides diverse double C- and N-vinylated 1,2,3-triazole derivatives and C-vinylated 1,2,3-triazole

• derivatives from azidophilic substrates and different azide derivatives. A short reaction time, good to high yield of products, high diversity, high selectivity, and ease of operation were some benefits of this methodology. The enolate reactivity with azides was compared to enamines. The best conditions were

Methodologies for the synthesis of quaternary carbon centers via hydroalkylation of unactivated olefins: twenty years of advances

• Thiago S. Silva and
• Fernando Coelho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1565–1590, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.112

• the protonation of a Pd(II) enolate intermediate by a proton source (HCl) generated at the cyclization step. The catalytic cycle begins with the enolic carbon of A attacking the complexed metal–olefin double bond in a turnover-limiting 6-endo-trig cyclization step (Scheme 3). The formed alkylpalladium

• (II) intermediate (B) then undergoes a sequence of reversible hydride β-eliminations [30] until the formation of the Pd(II) enolate (F), which, after protonation, irreversibly furnishes the product 2 and regenerates the Pd(II) catalyst. The lack of the usually kinetically favored 5-exo-trig

• Markovnikov-type addition to generate a carbon-centered radical (B) that attacks the electron-deficient olefin (Scheme 22A). The newly formed alkyl radical (C) is then reduced by a Fe(II) species to an enolate (D) in an electron transfer (ET) step; a proton abstraction then delivers the hydroalkylated product

Synthesis of 1-indolyl-3,5,8-substituted γ-carbolines: one-pot solvent-free protocol and biological evaluation

• Premansh Dudhe,
• Mena Asha Krishnan,
• Kratika Yadav,
• Diptendu Roy,
• Krishnan Venkatasubbaiah,
• Biswarup Pathak and
• Venkatesh Chelvam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1453–1463, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.101

• formation of γ-carboline derivatives 3aa–ac and 3ba–ea involves the initial formation of trans-iminoester 4 from the N-protected indole-2-carboxaldehydes 1a–e and 1g, and glycine alkyl esters 2a–c. The Hünig’s base, DIPEA, helps abstract the active methylene proton from iminoester 4 to generate enolate ion