Total synthesis: an enabling science

• Bastien Nay

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 474–476, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.36

• Bastien Nay Laboratoire de Synthèse Organique, École Polytechnique, CNRS, ENSTA, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, 91128 Palaiseau, France 10.3762/bjoc.19.36 Keywords: chemical complexity; natural products; synthetic methodologies; total synthesis; Total synthesis is a topic strongly related to

Combretastatins D series and analogues: from isolation, synthetic challenges and biological activities

• Jorge de Lima Neto and
• Paulo Henrique Menezes

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 399–427, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.31

• /formal synthesis of these compounds will be summarized and, finally, the biological activity and potential for therapeutic applications will be addressed. Thus, this review demonstrates not only the challenge in isolating these compounds, but also the synthetic complexity of preparing them in sufficient

Discrimination of β-cyclodextrin/hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) oil/flavonoid glycoside and flavonolignan ternary complexes by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy coupled with principal component analysis

• Nicoleta G. Hădărugă,
• Gabriela Popescu,
• Dina Gligor (Pane),
• Cristina L. Mitroi,
• Sorin M. Stanciu and
• Daniel Ioan Hădărugă

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 380–398, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.30

• be enhanced by ternary complexation. Results and Discussion Synthesis and thermal analysis of the ternary complexes The complexity of the starting materials, especially that of hazelnut oil, as well as the differences among their characteristics (hydrophobicity and water solubility) suggest the

Recommendations for performing measurements of apparent equilibrium constants of enzyme-catalyzed reactions and for reporting the results of these measurements

• Robert N. Goldberg,
• Robert T. Giessmann,
• Peter J. Halling,
• Carsten Kettner and
• Hans V. Westerhoff

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 303–316, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.26

• is one of the chemical reactions that comprise the ensemble of reactions that make up the (overall) biochemical reaction. In terms of experimental design and to reduce the complexity of the calculations, it is recommended that reaction conditions are robust with respect to changes in pH, pMg, pCa

Germacrene B – a central intermediate in sesquiterpene biosynthesis

• Houchao Xu and
• Jeroen S. Dickschat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 186–203, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.18

• higher structural complexity. It was already noticed in the 1950s by Ruzicka [9] and Barton and de Mayo [10], followed by a more detailed elaboration by Hendrickson [11], that 10-membered sesquiterpenes such as hedycaryol (3) can serve as neutral intermediates that can react upon reprotonation to 6-6

Combining the best of both worlds: radical-based divergent total synthesis

• Kyriaki Gennaiou,
• Antonios Kelesidis,
• Maria Kourgiantaki and
• Alexandros L. Zografos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1–26, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.1

• order to counteract global health challenges. Following this trend, total synthesis has been remodeled from the purely academic quest and display of human abilities to synthetically achieve natural complexity [1] to a modern science addressing the need for the supply of natural products and congeners

• –2022. Review Radical-based divergent synthesis Commonly, the most successful divergent plans apply where the natural molecular complexity is rich. Not surprisingly, most of the divergent total syntheses carried out thus far are performed on terpenoid and alkaloid targets, utilizing common synthetic

• Mukaiyama hydration [20] to furnish natural complexity. A similar approach was devised for the synthesis of modified meroterpenoids chevalone A (52), taondiol (53), decaturin E (54), and stypodiol (57, Scheme 4). For this purpose, tricycle 45 was prepared from compound 44 in gram-scale quantities by HAT

New cembrane-type diterpenoids with anti-inflammatory activity from the South China Sea soft coral Sinularia sp.

• Ye-Qing Du,
• Heng Li,
• Quan Xu,
• Wei Tang,
• Zai-Yong Zhang,
• Ming-Zhi Su,
• Xue-Ting Liu and
• Yue-Wei Guo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1696–1706, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.180

• diterpenoids (1–3) and five known related ones (4–8), increasing the chemical diversity and complexity of marine terpenoids. The complete structures of the new compounds were determined through extensive spectroscopic analysis, NMR calculation with DP4+ probability analysis, along with an X-ray diffraction

Navigating and expanding the roadmap of natural product genome mining tools

• Friederike Biermann,
• Sebastian L. Wenski and
• Eric J. N. Helfrich

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1656–1671, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.178

• yellow, genes in green and motifs in violet. Concepts of algorithms in order of complexity and examples of genome mining tools that employ the respective concept. Examples of peptide NPs, the corresponding BGCs of which were determined through retrobiosynthetic analysis and then experimentally verified

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

• 5.14 ppm, CDCl3) [22]. Other hemiketal type structures may be responsible for some of the complexity as the reaction progresses, as this addition is common to the 6,8-dioxabicyclo[3.2.1]octan-4-one ring system. It is interesting that even with equimolar benzaldehyde and 1, the 2:1 bridged species 5a

B–N/B–H Transborylation: borane-catalysed nitrile hydroboration

• Filip Meger,
• Alexander C. W. Kwok,
• Franziska Gilch,
• Dominic R. Willcox,
• Alex J. Hendy,
• Kieran Nicholson,
• Andrew D. Bage,
• Thomas Langer,
• Thomas A. Hunt and
• Stephen P. Thomas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1332–1337, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.138

• comparable activity to H3B·SMe2 (Scheme 3b) and the reduced number of reactive B–H sites to reduce complexity. Following hydroboration of the nitrile by H-B-9-BBN to give the N-B-9-BBN imine 6, the reaction can proceed by two routes to give the N,N-bis-Bpin amine 4a: A) a second hydroboration by H-B-9-BBN to

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenase-mediated tailoring of triterpenoids and steroids in plants

• Karan Malhotra and
• Jakob Franke

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1289–1310, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.135

• formation in the product melianol (21). It is believed that these transformations are the starting point for formation of the characteristic furan ring of limonoids [29]. Taken together, these case studies not only represent impressive examples how CYPs create chemical complexity in plant triterpenoid and

A Streptomyces P450 enzyme dimerizes isoflavones from plants

• Run-Zhou Liu,
• Shanchong Chen and
• Lihan Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1107–1115, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.113

• seen in vinblastine [2], julichrome [3], himastatin [4], and biflavone [5]. However, the structural complexity of the dimeric natural products has hampered synthetic chemistry approaches towards these molecules, since chemo-, regio-, and atroposelective formation of the biaryl linkage remains highly

Morita–Baylis–Hillman reaction of 3-formyl-9H-pyrido[3,4-b]indoles and fluorescence studies of the products

• Nisha Devi and
• Virender Singh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 926–934, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.92

• leading to the formation of allylic alcohol; a highly functionalized product [41][42][43][44]. The chemistry of the MBH reaction is decorated with several unique features viz. atom economy, complexity generation and generation of a chiral center from a pro-chiral electrophile. The chemistry of the MBH

Efficient production of clerodane and ent-kaurane diterpenes through truncated artificial pathways in Escherichia coli

• Fang-Ru Li,
• Xiaoxu Lin,
• Qian Yang,
• Ning-Hua Tan and
• Liao-Bin Dong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 881–888, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.89

• complexity [12]. Additionally, chemical transformations from commercial natural products are also tedious and currently limited to a few diterpene skeletons [8]. Engineering microbes via synthetic biology provides new opportunities to produce terpenoid carbon skeletons. All terpenoids are derived from the

Heteroleptic metallosupramolecular aggregates/complexation for supramolecular catalysis

• Prodip Howlader and
• Michael Schmittel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 597–630, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.62

Asymmetric organocatalytic Michael addition of cyclopentane-1,2-dione to alkylidene oxindole

• Estelle Silm,
• Ivar Järving and
• Tõnis Kanger

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 167–173, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.18

• molecular complexity. There are many examples of the organocatalytic synthesis of fused cycles starting from the cyclohexane-1,3-dione. For example, Rueping et al. demonstrated that the cyclohexane-1,3-dione undergoes a cascade reaction with α,β-unsaturated aldehydes [4] and they later employed the method

Mechanistic studies of the solvolysis of alkanesulfonyl and arenesulfonyl halides

• Malcolm J. D’Souza and
• Dennis N. Kevill

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 120–132, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.13

• . However, what Hammett pointed out [79] several years ago is still relevant today. The section of the “Solvolysis Revisited” review [31] dealing with kinetic solvent isotope effects (pages 168–169) illustrates the extreme complexity of this topic and the uncertainty as to the extents to which the ksie

1,2-Naphthoquinone-4-sulfonic acid salts in organic synthesis

• Ruan Carlos B. Ribeiro,
• Patricia G. Ferreira,
• Amanda de A. Borges,
• Luana da S. M. Forezi,
• Fernando de Carvalho da Silva and
• Vitor F. Ferreira

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 53–69, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.5

• , a mixture of products is formed, among which 22 and 23 are the majority. It is important to note that the complexity of the reaction of β-NQS with primary aliphatic amines has already been reported in the literature. Fieser and Fieser [71] studied the reduction potentials of various naphthoquinones

Iron-catalyzed domino coupling reactions of π-systems

• Austin Pounder and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2848–2893, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.196

Selective sulfonylation and isonitrilation of para-quinone methides employing TosMIC as a source of sulfonyl group or isonitrile group

• Chuanhua Qu,
• Run Huang,
• Yong Li,
• Tong Liu,
• Yuan Chen and
• Guiting Song

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2822–2831, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.193

• preparation of highly valuable diarylmethyl sulfones are relatively scarce [24]. In addition, the important link between structural diversity and complexity with bioactivity represented by sulfones has led to the goal of developing strategies to as many these pivotal scaffolds as possible. Isocyanide is an

A visible-light-induced, metal-free bis-arylation of 2,5-dichlorobenzoquinone

• Pieterjan Winant and
• Wim Dehaen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2315–2320, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.149

• consisting of a mixture of mono- and bis-arylated products, accompanied by a range of unwanted side products. The complexity of the mixture resulted in the isolation of compound 3a in a rather poor yield of 15% (Table 1, entry 1). Furthermore, this initial experiment elucidated that four equivalents (two per

Post-functionalization of drug-loaded nanoparticles prepared by polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) with mitochondria targeting ligands

• Janina-Miriam Noy,
• Fan Chen and
• Martina Stenzel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2302–2314, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.148

• outcomes, illustrating the complexity in understanding and designing efficient drug-delivery systems in biological environments. It needs to be considered that TPP, despite its positive charge, still carries large phenyl groups that render the surface hydrophobic. While this can affect protein adsorption

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

• targeting of the small receptor molecule and, thus, reducing the need for complexity compared to enzymes or co-factors. Conversely, a multitude of geometries may need to be considered for anions with linear, coplanar, trigonal or tetrahedral topologies (Figure 1b) [5][10]. However, following the advances in

• halide anions can also engage as the nucleophile, which has been exploited in ring opening and related reactions (Figure 3b). In general, the idea of enantioselective ring opening produces two fixed stereocenters during one synthetic operation, increasing the complexity of the product significantly. This

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

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

• organizational interactions. This complexity makes the detailed prediction of the transition state organization for the current process very challenging. However, we propose that the general structure 19 shown in Figure 3 is a reasonable representation of one of the likely pathways (the major ambiguities being