Young investigators in natural products chemistry, biosynthesis, and enzymology

• Jeffrey D. Rudolf,
• Lena Barra and
• Takayoshi Awakawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2720–2721, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.229

• . Their privileged structures have led organic and bioorganic chemists to develop methods to construct them. Our fundamental knowledge in enzymology is continually expanded by enzymes involved in natural products biosynthesis, as their production requires evolved enzymes to perform chemical reactions

Synthesis of benzo[f]quinazoline-1,3(2H,4H)-diones

• Ruben Manuel Figueira de Abreu,
• Peter Ehlers and
• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2708–2719, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.228

• investigation or modulation of desired properties. Conclusion In summary, we have developed the synthesis of novel polycyclic uracil-based compounds. Careful optimisation of the reaction conditions led to the isolation of the desired products in excellent to moderate yields. The developed methodology tolerates

Synthesis of fluoroalkenes and fluoroenynes via cross-coupling reactions using novel multihalogenated vinyl ethers

• Yukiko Karuo,
• Keita Hirata,
• Atsushi Tarui,
• Kazuyuki Sato,
• Kentaro Kawai and
• Masaaki Omote

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2691–2703, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.226

• blocks. When using them as nucleophilic reagents [15][16][17][18][19][20], the reaction between anion species, such as fluorine-containing Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons reagents, and carbonyl compounds led to E-selective olefination (Scheme 1A) [15]. On the other hand, some reactions with electrophilic

• to 4 mol % led to the conversion of 1a into 3a in 77% yield (Table 2, entry 13). In addition, using 2.0 equiv of 5a gave 3a in high 80% yield (Table 2, entry 14). Based on these results, we determined entry 13 in Table 1 and entry 14 in Table 2 as the optimum reaction conditions. We used 1 as a

Transition-metal-free decarbonylation–oxidation of 3-arylbenzofuran-2(3H)-ones: access to 2-hydroxybenzophenones

• Bhaskar B. Dhotare,
• Seema V. Kanojia,
• Chahna K. Sakhiya,
• Amey Wadawale and
• Dibakar Goswami

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2655–2667, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.223

• a 4-methoxy substituent, has been reported to be associated with allergy reactions, Hirschsprung's disease, as endocrine disruptor, and toxic to the environment [30]. This has led researchers to search for alternatives, particularly regarding the backbone of 2-hydroxybenzophenones [11]. As reported

The scent gland composition of the Mangshan pit viper, Protobothrops mangshanensis

• Jonas Holste,
• Paul Weldon,
• Donald Boyer and
• Stefan Schulz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2644–2654, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.222

• GC–HRMS. Additional chemical derivatization of the extracts and final synthesis of the proposed structure candidates led to the structures of compounds A–F. Unknown compounds A–F Compounds A–F showed closely related mass spectra (Figure 2) and mostly occurred as pairs of diastereomers, labeled, e.g

• gap between m/z 192 and 232 indicates a methyl group either at either C-5 or C-6. Taken together, the data from the derivatizations led to the conclusion that one methyl group is located at C-4 and a second at C-6. This is consistent with regular fatty acid biosynthesis of mid-chain methyl

Deciphering the mechanism of γ-cyclodextrin’s hydrophobic cavity hydration: an integrated experimental and theoretical study

• Stiliyana Pereva,
• Stefan Dobrev,
• Tsveta Sarafska,
• Valya Nikolova,
• Silvia Angelova,
• Tony Spassov and
• Todor Dudev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2635–2643, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.221

• increased solubility of the entrapped molecules, led to the wide range of applications in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic, agricultural, and other industries. It is well established that in the absence of other candidates, water molecules fill the CDs void [6][7][8][9][10]. The number and geometric

Applications of microscopy and small angle scattering techniques for the characterisation of supramolecular gels

• Connor R. M. MacDonald and
• Emily R. Draper

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2608–2634, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.220

• material in its hydrated state. Cryogenic techniques utilise a vitrification process to maximise the formation of vitreous ice to minimise the formation of ice crystals which can disrupt the material structure. The ability of cryo-EM to probe the structure of soft nanostructured materials has led to a

Efficient modification of peroxydisulfate oxidation reactions of nitrogen-containing heterocycles 6-methyluracil and pyridine

• Alfiya R. Gimadieva,
• Yuliya Z. Khazimullina,
• Aigiza A. Gilimkhanova and
• Akhat G. Mustafin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2599–2607, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.219

• are widely used in pharmacology due to their pronounced biological activities and low toxicities. The introduction of a hydroxy function into uracil and pyridine molecules has led to compounds with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory activity (3-hydroxy-6-methyl-2-ethylpyridine, 5

• maximum yield of compound 2, equal to 95%, was obtained when 0.05 wt % PcFe(II) was introduced into the reaction. However, on enhancing the catalyst's quantity to 0.1 wt %, the product yield decreased to 33–45%. Further increase in the quantity of catalyst led to a greater decline in the yield of MU-5

Base-promoted cascade recyclization of allomaltol derivatives containing an amide fragment into substituted 3-(1-hydroxyethylidene)tetronic acids

• Andrey N. Komogortsev,
• Constantine V. Milyutin and
• Boris V. Lichitsky

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2585–2591, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.217

• of the process time led to decrease of the yield due to partial tarring of the reaction mixture (Table 1, entry 3). Next, we assumed that the investigated reaction can be performed at room temperature. However, stirring under these conditions for 3 h in MeCN didn’t enhance the yield of compound 4a

• refluxing EtOH allowed us to obtain substituted enehydrazine 7 (Scheme 5a). The similar condensation with amine 8 led to enamine derivative 9 (Scheme 5b). Based on the data of X-ray analysis compound 7 has the same configuration of double and hydrogen bonds as in the case of starting tetronic acids 4

Transition-metal-free synthesis of arylboronates via thermal generation of aryl radicals from triarylbismuthines in air

• Yuki Yamamoto,
• Yuki Konakazawa,
• Kohsuke Fujiwara and
• Akiya Ogawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2577–2584, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.216

• under transition-metal-free and open-air conditions. Conventional methods required photoirradiation or electrolysis to generate aryl radicals from triarylbismuthines. In this study, it was found that simply heating the solution of triarylbismuthines in benzotrifluoride (BTF) in air successfully led to

• investigated various transition-metal-free methods for the generation of aryl radicals from shelf-stable aryl compounds (Scheme 1b). For example, the heating of arylhydrazine hydrochlorides (ArNHNH2·HCl) in the presence of base under open-air conditions successfully led to the generation of aryl radicals and

•  1c). This method could be carried out without any special apparatus, and the mild conditions led to the wide range of applications. Results and Discussion Initially, we used triphenylbismuthine (1a) and bis(pinacolato)diboron (2) as the model substrates to optimize the reaction conditions (Table 1

A review of recent advances in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical late-stage functionalization classified by anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, and paired electrolysis

• Nian Li,
• Ruzal Sitdikov,
• Ajit Prabhakar Kale,
• Joost Steverlynck,
• Bo Li and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2500–2566, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.214

• of acrylic acids with alkynes was reported by Mei and coworkers [59]. Diverse functional groups on the aryl group connected to the alkyne are compatible with this transformation, and dialkylalkynes can also be effectively reacted. Extensive mechanistic studies have led to the following proposed

• conditions, a combination of a manganese (Mn) catalyst and NaN3 delivered the azidation product. This protocol was effective for azidating unactivated secondary and tertiary carbon bonds as well as benzylic C–H bonds and was applied to the LSF of certain drugs and natural products. Mechanistic studies led

• and cross-coupling of different kinds of amines for approaching symmetric and unsymmetric imines [76]. This method achieved the bioconjugation of several amino acids with benzylamine, the use of phenylalanine (Phe), serine (Ser), and isoleucine (Ile) as substrates led to 85%, 59%, and 29% yield

Visible-light-mediated flow protocol for Achmatowicz rearrangement

• Joachyutharayalu Oja,
• Sanjeev Kumar and
• Srihari Pabbaraja

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2493–2499, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.213

• Information File 1). This reactor was then exposed to sunlight/handmade LED to carry out the Achmatowicz rearrangement reaction. To test the model reaction's feasibility, a stock solution containing ethyl 3-(furan-2-yl)-3-hydroxypropanoate (2a)/Ru(bpy)3Cl2·6H2O/K2S2O8/ACN (2 mL)/DMSO (2 mL)/H2O (4 mL) as a

• prevent the formation of the desired product. At the same position, introducing more substituents such as n-butyl (2c), dimethyl (2d), cyclohexyl (2e) and sterically crowded diphenyl (2f) groups also led to the corresponding products (3c–f) with average to good yields that were comparable to that obtained

• corresponding products (3o, 3p) in good yields. All the products obtained were characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and mass spectrometry techniques. A plausible catalytic cycle has been postulated based on a literature study [13], and is shown in Figure 2. With the exposure of photocatalyst to sunlight/LED light

HFIP as a versatile solvent in resorcin[n]arene synthesis

• Hormoz Khosravi,
• Valeria Stevens and
• Raúl Hernández Sánchez

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2469–2475, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.211

• a century [1][2][3]. Decades of research culminated in the landmark paper by Niederl and Vogel [4], whose quantitative elementary analysis and molecular weight determinations led them to conclude that the most likely product of the aldehyde-resorcinol condensation was a four-fold species resulting

• showed resorcinol in the reaction mixture. This observation led us to run a control experiment in the absence of aldehyde, which showed that HFIP leads to metal-free deiodination of 2-iodoresorcinol (Figure 1a). Finally, while all new compounds reported herein have full spectroscopic characterization

Photoredox-catalyzed intramolecular nucleophilic amidation of alkenes with β-lactams

• Valentina Giraldi,
• Giandomenico Magagnano,
• Daria Giacomini,
• Pier Giorgio Cozzi and
• Andrea Gualandi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2461–2468, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.210

• 4), while reducing the amount of PhSSPh and lutidine to 20 mol % led to a lower yield (Table 1, entry 5). With the optimized reaction conditions in hand, we submitted the previously prepared 4-alkoxy-β-lactam substrates 8a–h to photoredox conditions (Scheme 1), and the salient results are reported

Hypervalent iodine-mediated cyclization of bishomoallylamides to prolinols

• Smaher E. Butt,
• Konrad Kepski,
• Jean-Marc Sotiropoulos and
• Wesley J. Moran

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2455–2460, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.209

• outcome led to variable yields of product in the range of 10–25%. Increasing the quantity of 2-iodoanisole to 150 mol % provided a reproducible 30% yield of 7a (Table 1, entry 1). We then varied the iodoarene to see the impact on the reaction outcome. Using iodobenzene, 2-iodobiphenyl, and 3-iodotoluene

• provided slight improvements in yield (Table 1, entries 2–4). The more electron-rich 2-iodo-1,3-dimethoxybenzene led to a further increase in yield to 44% (Table 1, entry 5). 1,2-Diiodobenzene has been reported to be a superior precatalyst in intermolecular C–H aminations of arenes but only provided 40

• % yield in the present case [22]. 1-Iodonaphthalene led to an increase in yield to 49% (Table 1, entry 7). 1-Iodo-2,4-dimethoxybenzene afforded the highest yield of all with 59% of tertiary amide being isolated (Table 1, entry 8). Leaving the reaction to stir for an extended period led to a further

Facile preparation of fluorine-containing 2,3-epoxypropanoates and their epoxy ring-opening reactions with various nucleophiles

• Yutaro Miyashita,
• Sae Someya,
• Tomoko Kawasaki-Takasuka,
• Tomohiro Agou and
• Takashi Yamazaki

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2421–2433, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.206

• high stereoselectivity were similarly recorded for the other substrates 2c and 2d possessing different Rf groups at the 3 position (Table 2, entries 1–3). Mixing of 2b with different primary (entries 4–7 in Table 2) and secondary (entries 8 and 9) amines led to the formation of the respective products

• amines and thiols were obtained by using the corresponding MgX2 [23][24]. It was proved that a larger amount of nucleophiles, higher temperature, and longer time all led to a decrease in the diastereomeric ratio of the products 5 (ca 10%) like the case of thiols described above. This is the reason why

• during the lactone-forming process. Their close structural resemblance led to a significant peak overlap both in the 1H and 19F NMR spectra which made it difficult to obtain their exact ratio and thus, the combined 19F NMR yields were shown in Table 4. Separation of these two compounds was eventually

Homogeneous continuous flow nitration of O-methylisouronium sulfate and its optimization by kinetic modeling

• Jiapeng Guo,
• Weike Su and
• An Su

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2408–2420, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.205

• temperature exceeds the highest temperature used during the initial development of the kinetic model, which was 40 °C. This further extrapolation led to a 10% error at a residence time of 13.7 min, inferring that it would be prudent to avoid increasing the temperature to 45 °C if the aim is to maintain the

Improved deconvolution of natural products’ protein targets using diagnostic ions from chemical proteomics linkers

• Andreas Wiest and
• Pavel Kielkowski

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2323–2341, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.199

• proteomic samples led to development of numerous enrichment strategies using a variety of linkers as outlined below. The enrichment of the probe–protein or probe–peptide conjugates reduces the number of total peptides to be resolved by LC–MS/MS. The most common strategy to identify proteins interacting with

• a probe either directly in living cells or in cell lysates utilizes a linker with biotin (Figure 8A). This approach led for example to the identification of protein targets of the synthetic pyrethrin analogues cerulenin, hypothemicin, fimbrolide, and eupalmerin acetate [89][90][91][92]. The biotin

• desthiobiotin moiety and isotopically labeled residues for direct quantification (Figure 9A) [103]. Thus far, the linker has been mainly utilized for profiling of reactive cysteines. For this review the labile and open search of the data acquired by Zanon et al. using the FragPipe suite led to identification of

Stereoselective mechanochemical synthesis of thiomalonate Michael adducts via iminium catalysis by chiral primary amines

• Michał Błauciak,
• Dominika Andrzejczyk,
• Błażej Dziuk and
• Rafał Kowalczyk

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2313–2322, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.198

• nucleophilic catalyst. Test reactions between cyclohexenone and thiomalonate 1 conducted in toluene at room temperature indicated the formation of the product with high conversions and efficiencies (Scheme 2). Application of epi-aminoquinine (AQ-1) in combination with 2-fluorobenzoic acid (system A) led to the

• supported moreover by the local pressure increase. Albeit the transformation performed in the planetary ball mill required 20 h to proceed, the same reaction in the mixer mill offering the greater energy impact by the rise of mixing frequency led to the product after 1 hour with an acceptable yield of

• observed when AQ-3 was applied. Besides, the modifications of the quinuclidine ring through replacing the vinyl substituent in the parent quinine core by a triple bond (AQ-5) led to no substantial improvement in the mixer mill, but the decrease of enantioselectivity in the reaction performed in the

Catalysing (organo-)catalysis: Trends in the application of machine learning to enantioselective organocatalysis

• Stefan P. Schmid,
• Leon Schlosser,
• Frank Glorius and
• Kjell Jorner

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2280–2304, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.196

• catalysts [3]. In particular, enantioselective organocatalysis has shown an impressive rise in the last decades, owing to the tunability of catalysts and different modes of activation, enabling a manifold of different transformations [4][5]. The development of the field, driven by many researchers, led to

• relationships such as those using Hammett parameters used linear models, the emergence of ML has led to the development of more complex algorithms, better suited for extracting hidden patterns in data. The ability of ML to efficiently capture complex relationships allows to extract influences on catalyst

• , the interest to describe the influence of substrate or catalyst structures on the rate or selectivity of a reaction is well-established and led among others to the introduction of Hammett parameters to relate chemical structures to both kinetic and thermodynamic reaction properties [28] (Figure 4). As

Deuterated reagents in multicomponent reactions to afford deuterium-labeled products

• Kevin Schofield,
• Shayna Maddern,
• Yueteng Zhang,
• Grace E. Mastin,
• Rachel Knight,
• Wei Wang,
• James Galligan and
• Christopher Hulme

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2270–2279, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.195

• a >95% deuterated aldehyde gave a >95% deuterated product. The low yield in 2c is likely due to the difficult preparation of aliphatic deuterated aldehydes which led us to believe that the starting material was partially decomposed. Nonetheless, both aliphatic and aromatic deuterated aldehydes have

gem-Difluorination of carbon–carbon triple bonds using Brønsted acid/Bu₄NBF₄ or electrogenerated acid

• Mizuki Yamaguchi,
• Hiroki Shimao,
• Kengo Hamasaki,
• Keiji Nishiwaki,
• Shigenori Kashimura and
• Kouichi Matsumoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2261–2269, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.194

• the case of an aliphatic terminal alkyne, such as dec-1-yne (1d), the 19F NMR study indicated 46% yield with method A (Table 2, entry 5), but it was difficult to purify and isolate product 2d because of the low molecular weight. Scale up conditions of method A, for the purpose of the isolation, led to

Heterocycle-guided synthesis of m-hetarylanilines via three-component benzannulation

• Andrey R. Galeev,
• Maksim V. Dmitriev,
• Alexander S. Novikov and
• Andrey N. Maslivets

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2208–2216, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.188

• key fragment [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. The aforementioned features have led to an extensive development of novel methods to access meta-substituted anilines which can be divided into two main strategies (Scheme 1A) [27]. The first strategy focuses on the decoration of the aromatic ring

Natural resorcylic lactones derived from alternariol

• Joachim Podlech

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2171–2207, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.187

Factors influencing the performance of organocatalysts immobilised on solid supports: A review

• Zsuzsanna Fehér,
• Dóra Richter,
• Gyula Dargó and
• József Kupai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2129–2142, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.183

• ) photo-polymerisation reactions (Scheme 6) [24]. Previous endeavours utilising the homogeneous catalyst led to catalyst degradation or failure to remove the catalyst properly which resulted in the degradation of the polymer itself [66]. By employing the supported photocatalyst, reduced contamination was

• % increase in yields, however, further increase in pressure proved to be non-beneficial. Moreover, increasing the temperature provided higher yields at optimised pressure (60 bar) but also led to lowered enantioselectivity (Scheme 7) [121]. Zhang and co-workers prepared a novel polymer with an ordered