Recent progress in the synthesis of homotropane alkaloids adaline, euphococcinine and N-methyleuphococcinine

• Dimas J. P. Lima,
• Antonio E. G. Santana,
• Michael A. Birkett and
• Ricardo S. Porto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 28–41, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.4

• potassium enolate to neutral η3-allylmolibdenum. The crude anionic intermediate 72 was treated with nitrosonium hexafluorophosphate in DME to provide bicyclic enone (−)-73 with 80% yield over two steps. Protection of the non-conjugated ketone (−)-73 as an acetal derivative occurred selectively to provide

• -sulfinimes (+)-95 and (+)-96 were added to a −78 °C solution of the N-methoxy-N-methylacetamide enolate 102, leading to Weinreb amides (+)-97 and (+)-98, respectively, with good yields and high diastereoisomeric excesses (Scheme 11). The reaction of (+)-97 and (+)-98 with five equivalents of methylmagnesium

All-carbon [3 + 2] cycloaddition in natural product synthesis

• Zhuo Wang and
• Junyang Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 3015–3031, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.251

• [52][53] with the allenyl rhodium to the enal and gives the allenyl rhodium species C. A Conia-ene-type reaction [54] between the Rhoda-enolate species and the allene of complex C produces the desired [3.3.0] bicycle D. Protonolysis [55][56][57] of complex D with the alcohol 110 gives bicyclic product

• cation, which is intercepted by the titanium enolate and results in the new C–C bond formation to give the five-membered carbocycle 169. Conclusion The all-carbon [3 + 2] cycloaddition, together with the [3 + 2] annulation, continue to be an attractive class of reactions for the synthesis of highly

Synthesis of novel fluorinated building blocks via halofluorination and related reactions

• Attila Márió Remete,
• Tamás T. Novák,
• Melinda Nonn,
• Matti Haukka,
• Ferenc Fülöp and
• Loránd Kiss

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2562–2575, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.208

• epimerization is required. The requirement of additional reaction steps may explain the lower yield (31%) of this reaction. Note, that from the other three substrates, the product (rac)-27 was obtained in a yield of 52–54%. Since the enolate (rac)-T9 is all-equatorial, and consequently, the energy is lower than

Recent developments in enantioselective photocatalysis

• Callum Prentice,
• James Morrisson,
• Andrew D. Smith and
• Eli Zysman-Colman

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2363–2441, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.197

• trapped by enolate 160 in a chiral environment, provided by the PTC, to form a α-hydroperoxyl intermediate 161. Subsequent deoxygenation by another molecule of 160 forms two molecules of the α-hydroxylated products 162 in excellent yields and moderate enantioselectivities (11 examples, up to 88:12 er

•  24) [77]. Interestingly, this takes place without the need for an external photocatalyst and is proposed to proceed via an intermediate EDA complex 164, which, upon excitation, forms perfluoroalkyl radicals 163• that add to the enolate substrate that is coordinated to a chiral counterion 165 to give

• to generate diradical 177 that then adds to the alkene to form diradical 178. A SET between the ketyl radical and the α-carbonyl radical generates enolate intermediate 179, which after proton transfer regenerates the catalyst and releases the desired cyclisation product 180 in a moderate yield and

Pauson–Khand reaction of fluorinated compounds

• Jorge Escorihuela,
• Daniel M. Sedgwick,
• Alberto Llobat,
• Mercedes Medio-Simón,
• Pablo Barrio and
• Santos Fustero

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1662–1682, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.138

• nucleophilic addition, the authors suggested the tentative mechanism depicted in Scheme 34. As shown, γ-fluoride loss from enolate I, formed after the conjugate Michael addition, would lead to the formation of difluoroenone II. This could in turn undergo a nucleophilic addition of water, followed by a retro

NHC-catalyzed enantioselective synthesis of β-trifluoromethyl-β-hydroxyamides

• Alyn T. Davies,
• Mark D. Greenhalgh,
• Alexandra M. Z. Slawin and
• Andrew D. Smith

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1572–1578, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.129

• stereogenic trifluoromethyl centers is through enantioselective addition of enolates or their equivalents to prochiral trifluoromethyl ketones (Figure 1A). Within this area, a common catalytic approach has utilized aliphatic ketones as enolate equivalents using prolinamide, cinchona, or hybrid catalysts that

• using NHCs, the azolium enolate has been widely used [27][28]. Methods to generate azolium enolates from a number of precursors have been reported, including the use of ketenes [29][30], α-functionalized aldehydes [31][32][33][34][35], enals [36][37][38], aryl esters [39][40][41][42], or aldehydes [43

• ][44][45] in the presence of an oxidant. As representative examples of the use of azolium enolates in reactions with trifluoroacetophenone derivatives, Ye and co-workers have shown that using disubstituted ketenes as azolium enolate precursors and NHC precatalyst 1 allowed access to trifluoromethyl

One-step route to tricyclic fused 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline systems via the Castagnoli–Cushman protocol

• Aleksandar Pashev,
• Nikola Burdzhiev and
• Elena Stanoeva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1456–1464, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.121

• ][14][20][21]. The mechanism of the reaction is still under debate with two prevailing versions in the literature (Scheme 2) [16][17][22][23][24]. The first reaction pathway includes the formation of an N-acyliminium ion 15, followed by a ring closure through an enolate ion 16. The other mechanistic

Fluorinated phenylalanines: synthesis and pharmaceutical applications

• Laila F. Awad and
• Mohammed Salah Ayoup

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1022–1050, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.91

• with zincate 11 using a variety of catalysts and different reaction conditions, was unsuccessful. However, coupling of 4-[bis(dimethoxybenzyl)difluoromethyl]benzyl bromide (14) with the lithium enolate of William`s lactone 15 gave the protected amino acid 16 in 80% yield. The desired protected amino

Copper-catalysed alkylation of heterocyclic acceptors with organometallic reagents

• Yafei Guo and
• Syuzanna R. Harutyunyan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1006–1021, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.90

• access various derivatives, such as 12 and 13, derived from the trapping and Baeyer–Villiger oxidation of 11, respectively, or compound 16, obtained via the ring opening reaction of 15 with an amine (Scheme 5). Taking the enolate intermediate derived from the addition of EtMgBr to coumarin as an example

• , it was shown that upon the treatment with an amine, this enolate produced the final chiral amide product with a good yield (82%) and ee (96%). While the methodology for the ACAs of Grignard reagents to chromones and coumarins has been established successfully, quinolones remained challenging

Recent applications of porphyrins as photocatalysts in organic synthesis: batch and continuous flow approaches

• Rodrigo Costa e Silva,
• Luely Oliveira da Silva,
• Aloisio de Andrade Bartolomeu,
• Timothy John Brocksom and
• Kleber Thiago de Oliveira

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 917–955, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.83

• -α-hydroxy-β-keto esters in 81–93% yields and 39–75% ee (Scheme 41). The mechanism of this reaction involves the attack of the enolate paired with the chiral counter ion PTC to the singlet oxygen electrophile to give the hydroperoxide intermediate, which is converted to α-hydroxy-β-keto esters

Recent advances in Cu-catalyzed C(sp³)–Si and C(sp³)–B bond formation

• Balaram S. Takale,
• Ruchita R. Thakore,
• Elham Etemadi-Davan and
• Bruce H. Lipshutz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 691–737, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.67

• . have contributed to the understanding of the mechanism of silylation reactions of unsaturated compounds. In their studies, it was possible, surprisingly, to isolate and characterize a β-silyl boron enolate complex 158. On the basis of experimental and NMR studies, they proposed that for α,β-unsaturated

• ketones, a 1,4-addition product was formed through a transient copper enolate, 157. With α,β-unsaturated esters, however, a carbon enolate, 160, is the intermediate. In order to maintain a catalytic cycle, iPrOH could be added to regenerate the active Cu species (Scheme 28). This study again proofed that

Copper-catalyzed O-alkenylation of phosphonates

• Nuria Vázquez-Galiñanes,
• Mariña Andón-Rodríguez,
• Patricia Gómez-Roibás and
• Martín Fañanás-Mastral

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 611–615, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.56

• procedures involving a Mitsunobu reaction between 2-hydroxyalkyl phenyl selenides and phosphonic acid monoesters followed by an oxidation/elimination step [14] or reaction of an enolate with a phosphonic dichloride and subsequent treatment with an alcohol [15] (Scheme 1a). However, these procedures are

Copper-catalyzed enantioselective conjugate reduction of α,β-unsaturated esters with chiral phenol–carbene ligands

• Shohei Mimura,
• Sho Mizushima,
• Yohei Shimizu and
• Masaya Sawamura

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 537–543, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.50

• π-complex C undergoes 1,4-hydrocupration to afford copper enolate D. During our initial investigations, we observed configurational isomerization from 1a to (E)-1a when the reaction was conducted in the absence of alcoholic protonation reagents. This observation implied that the 1,4-hydrocupration

Synthesis of 4-amino-5-fluoropyrimidines and 5-amino-4-fluoropyrazoles from a β-fluoroenolate salt

• Tobias Lucas,
• Jule-Philipp Dietz and
• Till Opatz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 445–450, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.41

• ) of potassium formate, which could not easily be removed without risking the decomposition of the enolate salt (Scheme 1). As the fluorine atom is part of a building block, harsh conditions for a late-stage fluorination can be avoided, and even products with sensitive functionalities are accessible

• ) and electron-withdrawing groups (compound 10l) were formed in nearly quantitative yields (95–99%). Only the 4-hydroxyphenyl derivative 10j was obtained in a moderate yield (69%) presumably due to competing polymerization of the enolate. The 4-chloro and 4-bromo derivatives (10m and 10n) were also

•  2). In the first reactions, only traces of the desired compound 13a were observed. Changing the temperature did not increase the yield. Acidic conditions were tested next but phenylhydrazine hydrochloride and acetic acid again gave only traces of 13a and polymerization of the enolate took place. To

Copper-catalyzed enantioselective conjugate addition of organometallic reagents to challenging Michael acceptors

• Delphine Pichon,
• Jennifer Morvan,
• Christophe Crévisy and
• Marc Mauduit

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 212–232, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.24

• catalytic species, the resulting metallic enolate intermediate can also react with the starting material to form the aldol byproduct, significantly altering the yield of the expected 1,4-product (Scheme 1). The first successful copper-catalyzed ECA to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes with organozinc and Grignard

• –86%) and yield (44–63%) remained decent. The efficiency of TolBINAP (L3)/CuI was also demonstrated in the ECA of Grignard reagents to the 4-chloro-α,β-unsaturated thioester 22 [31]. Interestingly, the presence of the internal chloro leaving group allowed a powerful tandem conjugate addition–enolate

• /enolate trapping was also studied, providing the trans-cyclopentane product 56 as a single diastereoisomer (92% ee). In 2018, the same authors reported the 1,6- and 1,4-additions of various Grignard reagents to a wide scope of conjugated dienyl amides (Scheme 22) [51]. Interestingly, the authors observed

Why do thioureas and squaramides slow down the Ireland–Claisen rearrangement?

• Dominika Krištofíková,
• Juraj Filo,
• Mária Mečiarová and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2948–2957, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.290

• solvent and the amine’s structure [22][23]. The decomposition of the enolate is one of the side reactions, which can be suppressed by chelation. The chelation-stabilized enolates are more stable than the corresponding silyl ketene acetals, and they are capable of a direct rearrangement [24]. The chelation

• -controlled Ireland–Claisen rearrangement of O-protected allylic glycolate esters proceeded with moderate yields and diastereoselectivities of up to 20:1 [25]. An asymmetric ester-enolate-Claisen rearrangement was achieved by using aluminum-chelate-bridged enolates and proceeded with high yields and

• the corresponding acid 3a in 63% yield at rt (Table 1, entry 1). At a higher temperature, the product yield decreased (Table 1, entry 2). The reaction of the related (E)-but-2-en-1-yl propionate (1b) gave acid 3b under similar conditions with slightly lower yields. The rearrangement of lithium enolate

A review of asymmetric synthetic organic electrochemistry and electrocatalysis: concepts, applications, recent developments and future directions

• Munmun Ghosh,
• Valmik S. Shinde and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2710–2746, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.264

• oxidation by raising the energy of the HOMO upon enolate formation. Upon constant current electrolysis of a mixture of 85 and 86 in an undivided ElectraSyn 2.0 cell in presence of 2,6-lutidine as an external base and catalyst 87, products with tertiary carbon stereocenters as well as all-carbon quaternary

• to 2-acylimidazole derivatives 94 generates the Lewis acid/enolate complex 100 upon deprotonation (Scheme 35). This is followed by the formation of intermediate 101 by electrolysis-induced SET oxidation. In a parallel electrochemical cycle, benzylic radical species 95 was delivered by the anodic

• asymmetric reduction of 135 using enolate reductase that afforded the corresponding chiral acid 136 in 95% yield and 95% ee. It has been shown that the cofactor NADH is oxidized during this process and can be regenerated using methyl viologen 137 as a reductive mediator (Scheme 43) [78]. In 1997, Yoneyama

1,5-Phosphonium betaines from N-triflylpropiolamides, triphenylphosphane, and active methylene compounds

• Vito A. Fiore,
• Chiara Freisler and
• Gerhard Maas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2603–2611, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.253

• propadienones. The presentation of 1,5-zwitterions 3 with the negative charge residing on a carbon atom is more or less a formal one. The structural and spectroscopic data (vide infra) support the view that the mesomeric enolate structure 3’ (see Scheme 3) significantly contributes to the bonding state and that

• an even wider delocalization of the negative charge, represented by formula 3”, does occur. Therefore, these zwitterions are better described as 1-phosphonium-5-oxabetaines than -5-carbabetaines. Furthermore, they represent a novel type of phosphonium enolate betaines and may be considered as

Chiral terpene auxiliaries V: Synthesis of new chiral γ-hydroxyphosphine oxides derived from α-pinene

• Anna Kmieciak and
• Marek P. Krzemiński

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2493–2499, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.242

• with sodium methoxide in toluene and the resulting enolate was condensed with ethyl formate to give a keto-aldehyde, which tautomerized into the more stable β-hydroxyenone 4 [23]. The intermediate 4 was sufficiently pure for the subsequent transaldolization reaction with formaldehyde in the presence of

Photochromic diarylethene ligands featuring 2-(imidazol-2-yl)pyridine coordination site and their iron(II) complexes

• Andrey G. Lvov,
• Max Mörtel,
• Anton V. Yadykov,
• Frank W. Heinemann,
• Valerii Z. Shirinian and
• Marat M. Khusniyarov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2428–2437, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.235

• ) complexes [46][47]. Similarly, Fe–O bond distances of 1.9912(11) and 2.1238(12) Å also provide evidence for HS iron(II) [46][48][49]. The two Fe–O bonds are not equivalent as the ligand appears in its deprotonated enolate form. Furthermore, a trans-effect due to the H2B(pz)21− anion can further elongate

N-(1-Phenylethyl)aziridine-2-carboxylate esters in the synthesis of biologically relevant compounds

• Iwona E. Głowacka,
• Aleksandra Trocha,
• Andrzej E. Wróblewski and
• Dorota G. Piotrowska

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1722–1757, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.168

• lithium enolate of methyl 4-methoxyphenylacetate would give the β-hydroxyester 169 which when treated with Lewis acid experienced the aziridine ring cleavage with simultaneous dihydrofuran-2-one ring closure to produce 170 contaminated with small amounts of the corresponding furan-2(5H)-one 171

Synthesis of non-racemic 4-nitro-2-sulfonylbutan-1-ones via Ni(II)-catalyzed asymmetric Michael reaction of β-ketosulfones

• Alexander N. Reznikov,
• Anastasiya E. Sibiryakova,
• Marat R. Baimuratov,
• Eugene V. Golovin,
• Victor B. Rybakov and
• Yuri N. Klimochkin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1289–1297, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.127

• ) complexes [56]. The above considerations lead to the use of β-ketosulfones in the Ni(II)-catalyzed reaction, since the proposed mechanism [47], that involves the formation of cyclic Ni enolate, and the high CH acidity of ketosulfones (pKa 9.8–10.5 [4]). The formation of the key intermediate can be provided

• proposed mechanism for 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds [47] to explain how Ni catalysts are able to activate the substrates. The postulated catalytic cycle is summarized in Scheme 1. We assume that the β-ketosulfone coordinates to the Ni complex generating Ni-enolate B. The nitroalkene is activated by

Steroid diversification by multicomponent reactions

• Leslie Reguera,
• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Daniel G. Rivera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1236–1256, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.121

• based on the use of 17-ketosteroids and chlorotrimethylsilane (TMSCl) as catalyst, which enables the formation of the nucleophilic enolate that attacks either benzaldehyde or its urea imine derivative [39]. Varied ketosteroids were employed, including methylestrone 39, dehydroepiandrosterone acetate and

• presence of I2 as catalyst. The mechanism follows the initial formation of the imine compound between the aldehyde and the arylamine, followed by an imino-Diels–Alder reaction with the enolate generated from the ketosteroid. The reaction is highly regioselective for the enolization of the ketone, thus

Alkylation of lithiated dimethyl tartrate acetonide with unactivated alkyl halides and application to an asymmetric synthesis of the 2,8-dioxabicyclo[3.2.1]octane core of squalestatins/zaragozic acids

• Herman O. Sintim,
• Hamad H. Al Mamari,
• Hasanain A. A. Almohseni,
• Younes Fegheh-Hassanpour and
• David M. Hodgson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1194–1202, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.116

• -dialkylated tartrates 34a–f can be co-produced in small amounts (9–14%) under these conditions, and likely arise from the achiral dienolate 36 of tartrate 7. Enolate oxidation and acetonide removal from γ-silyloxyalkyl iodide-derived alkylated tartrates 17 and 24 give ketones 21 and 26 and then Bamford

• (e.g., 7, Scheme 2) was originally reported by Seebach and co-workers for ‘activated’ (allylic, benzylic) alkyl halides [17][18][19]. If an alkylated tartrate 9 could be accessed from a silyloxy-substituted alkyl iodide 8 and subsequently oxidised (for example via a second tartrate enolate) with

• notable in showing that the intermediate ester enolate 14 possessed sufficient stability not to undergo significant β-elimination under conditions of its generation and its alkylation: slow addition of pre-cooled LDA (−70 °C) to a mixture of the acetonide and electrophile in THF/HMPA at −78 °C, followed

Switchable selectivity in Pd-catalyzed [3 + 2] annulations of γ-oxy-2-cycloalkenones with 3-oxoglutarates: C–C/C–C vs C–C/O–C bond formation

• Yang Liu,
• Julie Oble and
• Giovanni Poli

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1107–1115, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.107

• transient η2-alkene complex A (steps a and b). Deprotonation of the pro-nucleophile 1a by the counter-anion of the η3-allyl-Pd complex exchanges the benzoate for the enolate anion (step c) [50], and following C–C bond formation from the resulting anion-scrambled complex C leads to the Pd(0) complex D (step