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

• isolated from organisms are often asymmetric in their spatial structures, and these unique spatial structures are precisely what lead to their diverse biological activities [1][2][3][4]. For the synthesis of these natural products or bioactive molecules, chemists usually need to consider how to carry out

• emphasis on the desymmetrization of diols. Prochiral 1,3-diols, as simple and practical substrates, have been widely used in developed desymmetrization methodologies with applications in the total synthesis of natural products and bioactive molecules, including enzymatic acylation, transition-metal

N-Salicyl-amino acid derivatives with antiparasitic activity from Pseudomonas sp. UIAU-6B

• Joy E. Rajakulendran,
• Emmanuel Tope Oluwabusola,
• Michela Cerone,
• Terry K. Smith,
• Olusoji O. Adebisi,
• Adefolalu Adedotun,
• Gagan Preet,
• Sylvia Soldatou,
• Hai Deng,
• Rainer Ebel and
• Marcel Jaspars

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1388–1396, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.103

• compounds 2 and 5 showed modest anti-L. major activity, while all other compounds displayed no activity. This study shows the Pseudomonas strain as a reservoir of untapped secondary metabolites and as a potential source for isolating unique bioactive molecules. Experimental General experimental procedures

Oxetanes: formation, reactivity and total syntheses of natural products

• Peter Gabko,
• Martin Kalník and
• Maroš Bella

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1324–1373, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.101

Recent advances in oxidative radical difunctionalization of N-arylacrylamides enabled by carbon radical reagents

• Jiangfei Chen,
• Yi-Lin Qu,
• Ming Yuan,
• Xiang-Mei Wu,
• Heng-Pei Jiang,
• Ying Fu and
• Shengrong Guo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1207–1271, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.98

• compatibility with primary, secondary, and tertiary bromides, yielding benzo-fused lactams with good functional group tolerance, thereby highlighting the method’s versatility for the synthesis of diverse bioactive molecules. The proposed mechanism involves the initial generation of alkyl radical 69 from α

Chitosan-supported CuI-catalyzed cascade reaction of 2-halobenzoic acids and amidines for the synthesis of quinazolinones

• Xuhong Zhao,
• Weishuang Li,
• Mengli Yang,
• Bojie Li,
• Yaoyao Zhang,
• Lizhen Huang and
• Lei Zhu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 839–844, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.67

• catalytic efficiency (up to 99% yield). Keywords: chitosan-supported CuI catalyst; cyclization reaction; mild conditions; quinazolinone; Introduction Quinazolinones are not only a key core of nitrogen-containing benzo heterocyclic compounds found in many natural products and bioactive molecules [1][2][3

Copper-catalyzed domino cyclization of anilines and cyclobutanone oxime: a scalable and versatile route to spirotetrahydroquinoline derivatives

• Qingqing Jiang,
• Xinyi Lei,
• Pan Gao and
• Yu Yuan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 749–754, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.58

• pivotal structural elements in drug discovery [1][2][3][4]. Notably, tetrahydroquinoline derivatives featuring a strain-inducing ring system are prevalent in numerous bioactive molecules, including those with promising therapeutic potential for neurological disorders, oncology, and various other medical

Origami with small molecules: exploiting the C–F bond as a conformational tool

• Patrick Ryan,
• Ramsha Iftikhar and
• Luke Hunter

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 680–716, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.54

• motif has been exploited in the design of bioactive molecules [22][23] such as the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors 6 and 7 (Figure 2). The presence of the 1,2-difluoro moiety in 6 leads to greater potency and selectivity for certain HDAC isoforms, attributable to the higher polarity of the

• cyclic amines. Next, we will examine some important derivatives of amines, such as amides and sulfonamides. Throughout, the emphasis will mostly be on bioactive molecules, but finally this section will conclude by examining a different type of molecular function, namely, organocatalysis. When fluorine is

• case (e.g., 107), suggesting that the NH···F interaction (i.e., II, Figure 12) is not a dominant one. The gauche preference of β-fluoroamides has been exploited to control the conformations of a variety of bioactive molecules [186]. For example, the activity of the GPR119 receptor agonist 108 (Figure

Recent advances in electrochemical copper catalysis for modern organic synthesis

• Yemin Kim and
• Won Jun Jang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 155–178, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.9

• cyanation of benzylic C(sp3)–H bonds (Figure 7) [56]. A wide range of electron-poor and electron-rich alkylarenes 20 are suitable substrates for this electrophotocatalytic radical relay strategy. Additionally, late-stage functionalization of bioactive molecules provides the corresponding chiral cyanation

Intramolecular C–H arylation of pyridine derivatives with a palladium catalyst for the synthesis of multiply fused heteroaromatic compounds

• Yuki Nakanishi,
• Shoichi Sugita,
• Kentaro Okano and
• Atsunori Mori

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3256–3262, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.269

• palladium catalyzed C–H arylation to pyridine derivatives. The cyclization reaction proceeded in a moderate to excellent yield when an appropriate phosphine ligand was employed. The reaction is expected to be useful for the synthesis of functional materials, and bioactive molecules in a facile manner

Synthesis of extended fluorinated tripeptides based on the tetrahydropyridazine scaffold

• Thierry Milcent,
• Pascal Retailleau,
• Benoit Crousse and
• Sandrine Ongeri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3174–3181, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.262

• , the tetrahydropyridazines, six-atom nitrogenous heterocycles, are found in various bioactive molecules such as influenza virus neuraminidase inhibitors, GABA type A receptor modulators, and regulators of progesterone receptor or cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonists (Figure 1) [6][7][8][9]. This

Chemical structure metagenomics of microbial natural products: surveying nonribosomal peptides and beyond

• Thomas Ma and
• John Chu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3050–3060, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.253

• research. Key to chemical structure metagenomics is the ability to predict the structure of a natural product based on its biosynthetic gene sequences, which facilitated the discovery of numerous new bioactive molecules and helped uncover oversampled/underexplored niches of decades of BGF based discovery

• approaches have already facilitated the discovery of numerous new bioactive molecules [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] and shed light on the scope of past discovery efforts by uncovering select oversampled/underexplored niches in the natural product chemical spaces [37]. While nonribosomal peptides (NRP

Synthesis and cytotoxicity studies of novel N-arylbenzo[h]quinazolin-2-amines

• Battini Veeraiah,
• Kishore Ramineni,
• Dabbugoddu Brahmaiah,
• Nangunoori Sampath Kumar,
• Hélène Solhi,
• Rémy Le Guevel,
• Chada Raji Reddy,
• Frédéric Justaud and
• René Grée

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2592–2598, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.218

• scaffolds for bioactive molecules. Thus, it appeared interesting to explore novel molecules with extended aromatic units around this basic quinazoline core and our first choice was N-arylbenzo[h]quinazoline-2-amines with the general structure C as indicated in Figure 1. Very limited studies have been

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

• . For example, Liu and colleagues demonstrated the electrochemical oxidation of benzylic C–H bonds to ketones using tert-butyl hydroperoxide as the radical initiator [14]. This method was applied to functionalize bioactive molecules, with celestolide, ibuprofen methyl ester, and papaverine being

• leads to an intermediate product, which is then deprotonated, generating the thiol radical. This allowed for the preparation of the para-thiolation product (Scheme 11). Sulfonamides are an important class of bioactive molecules. In 2021, the Waldvogel group disclosed the first C(sp2)–H functionalization

• cathodic reduction and to prevent the reoxidation of the reduced SO2 at the anode, a divided cell setup is required (Scheme 12). C–H bond halogenation: Aryl and alkyl halides are important synthetic building blocks for cross-coupling reactions as well as bioactive molecules with applications in

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

• 85%), compatible with many functional groups, and allows to synthesize a series of difficult-to-access meta-substituted anilines of interest for medicinal and material chemistry. The meta-hetarylaniline motif in bioactive molecules. The model series of synthesized 1,3-diketones and corresponding

Regioselective alkylation of a versatile indazole: Electrophile scope and mechanistic insights from density functional theory calculations

• Pengcheng Lu,
• Luis Juarez,
• Paul A. Wiget,
• Weihe Zhang,
• Krishnan Raman and
• Pravin L. Kotian

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1940–1954, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.170

• (s, 3H); 13C{1H} NMR (75 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 159.4, 144.7, 129.3, 123.6, 123.2, 122.8, 120.0, 118.0, 64.2, 52.2, 41.4, 14.4, 13.9; IR (KBr disk): 1708, 1459, 1442, 1392, 1326, 1252, 1196 cm−1; HRESIMS (m/z): [M + H]+ calcd for C10H10BrN2O2+, 268.9921; found, 268.9918. Indazole-containing bioactive

• molecules. Tautomerism of indazole. DFT-calculated deprotonation of 6 with Cs2CO3 in implicit THF with the temperature of the calculation set to 90 °C to simulate the dioxane conditions (top) and energy differences of four enolate resonance structures of 6 calculated as discrete structures. The hybrid is

Benzylic C(sp³)–H fluorination

• Alexander P. Atkins,
• Alice C. Dean and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1527–1547, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.137

• driven largely by the beneficial effects of including fluorine into bioactive molecules. These advantages include the modulation of potency, bioavailability and physical properties of drug and agrochemical compounds [1][2][3]. The significance of fluorination is reflected in the fact that a large number

• the relative stability of primary, secondary and tertiary benzylic radicals and cations. As a result, the presence of benzylic C(sp3)–H bonds in bioactive molecules can be problematic as they are particularly labile to enzymatic oxidation [16], and hence, their functionalisation has become a strategy

• , including bioactive molecules, was detailed in their work. Similar to the Doyle report, excess C–H substrate (up to 3 equivalents with respect to HAT reagent) was required in many cases, with the exception of tertiary benzylic substrates, which required only 1 equivalent of substrate and 2 equivalents of

Primary amine-catalyzed enantioselective 1,4-Michael addition reaction of pyrazolin-5-ones to α,β-unsaturated ketones

• Pooja Goyal,
• Akhil K. Dubey,
• Raghunath Chowdhury and
• Amey Wadawale

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1518–1526, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.136

• bioactive molecules (Figure 1) [4][5][6][7]. In addition, this moiety is an integral part of various agrochemical products and chelating agents [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Given the importance and widespread applications of pyrazoles, considerable efforts have been devoted to develop new protocols to access

• fascinating but at the same time challenging. Pyrazoles [4][5][6][7], benzofurans [34], and indoles [35][36] are popular scaffolds as they are prevalent in many bioactive molecules. Compounds bearing both pyrazole and indole moieties or pyrazole and benzofuran moieties (Figure 1) are highly attractive since

• temperature. The crude reaction mixture was purified by silica gel (230–400 mesh) column chromatography (petroleum ether/EtOAc as the eluent) to give the product 3 or ent-3. Selected examples of drugs and bioactive molecules bearing a pyrazole core. Single crystal X-ray structure of ent-3ba (CCDC 2234286

Synthetic applications of the Cannizzaro reaction

• Bhaskar Chatterjee,
• Dhananjoy Mondal and
• Smritilekha Bera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1376–1395, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.120

• aspects. The application of this highly valuable reaction to the functionalization of bioactive molecules with improved synthetic conditions, will broaden its use in the future. Types and mechanism of the Cannizzaro reaction. Various approaches of the Cannizzaro reaction. Representative molecules

Synthesis of new representatives of A₃B-type carboranylporphyrins based on meso-tetra(pentafluorophenyl)porphyrin transformations

• Victoria M. Alpatova,
• Evgeny G. Rys,
• Elena G. Kononova and
• Valentina A. Ol'shevskaya

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 767–776, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.70

• -dioxaoctane (21) and 1,13-diamino-4,7,10-trioxatridecane (22) in DMSO at 70 °C for 30 min to form amino-conjugates 23 and 24 in 71 and 84% yield, respectively, containing ethylene glycol linkers with terminal primary amino groups (Scheme 6). The presence of ethylene glycol residues in bioactive molecules is

SOMOphilic alkyne vs radical-polar crossover approaches: The full story of the azido-alkynylation of alkenes

• Julien Borrel and
• Jerome Waser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 701–713, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.64

• can be found in bioactive molecules and have been tested in structure–activity relationship studies (Scheme 1A) [8][9][10]. Moreover, transformations have been developed to exploit the two functional groups simultaneously, for example through their intramolecular cyclization to form pyrroles in the

Palladium-catalyzed three-component radical-polar crossover carboamination of 1,3-dienes or allenes with diazo esters and amines

• Geng-Xin Liu,
• Xiao-Ting Jie,
• Ge-Jun Niu,
• Li-Sheng Yang,
• Xing-Lin Li,
• Jian Luo and
• Wen-Hao Hu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 661–671, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.59

• -amino acid derivative. This approach proceeds under mild and simple reaction conditions and shows high functional group tolerance, especially in the incorporation of various bioactive molecules. The studies on scale-up reactions and diverse derivatizations highlight the practical utility of this

• owing to their wide applications in medicinal chemistry [1][2][3][4][5]. γ- and ε-AA derivatives are widely distributed in peptide natural products, bioactive molecules, and drugs, such as pregabalin, baclofen, ε-aminocaproic acid and lysine (Scheme 1a) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. The number of reported

• and linear amine 3b were found to readily participate in this protocol, furnishing the corresponding products 4a–c in 61–84% yields. To our delight, this MCR strategy was compatible with a wide variety of complex bioactive molecules, including tetrahydropapaverine, (R)-duloxetine, sertraline

Discovery of unguisin J, a new cyclic peptide from Aspergillus heteromorphus CBS 117.55, and phylogeny-based bioinformatic analysis of UngA NRPS domains

• Sharmila Neupane,
• Marcelo Rodrigues de Amorim and
• Elizabeth Skellam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 321–330, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.32

• discovered that linearized the cyclic unguisins to linear peptides during in vitro investigations, although the linear peptides were not detected from the fungal cultures. NRPS enzymes are large multifunctional enzymes that often synthesize very important bioactive molecules [11][12]. These enzymes consist

Construction of diazepine-containing spiroindolines via annulation reaction of α-halogenated N-acylhydrazones and isatin-derived MBH carbonates

• Xing Liu,
• Wenjing Shi,
• Jing Sun and
• Chao-Guo Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1923–1932, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.143

• motif, which is frequently found in natural products, bioactive molecules, and pharmaceuticals [1][2][3][4]. 1,2-Diazepine derivatives exhibit promising biological activities such as anticonvulsant, antibacterial, and antiproliferative effects [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Thus, the development of

Sulfur-containing spiroketals from Breynia disticha and evaluations of their anti-inflammatory effect

• Ken-ichi Nakashima,
• Naohito Abe,
• Masayoshi Oyama,
• Hiroko Murata and
• Makoto Inoue

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1604–1614, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.117

• Ken-ichi Nakashima Naohito Abe Masayoshi Oyama Hiroko Murata Makoto Inoue Laboratory of Medicinal Resources, School of Pharmacy, Aichi Gakuin University, 1-100 Kusumoto-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8650, Japan Laboratory of Pharmacognosy, Department of Bioactive Molecules, Gifu

Cyclodextrins permeabilize DPPC liposome membranes: a focus on cholesterol content, cyclodextrin type, and concentration

• Ghenwa Nasr,
• Hélène Greige-Gerges,
• Sophie Fourmentin,
• Abdelhamid Elaissari and
• Nathalie Khreich

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1570–1579, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.115

• Ghenwa Nasr Helene Greige-Gerges Sophie Fourmentin Abdelhamid Elaissari Nathalie Khreich Bioactive Molecules Research Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, Lebanese University, Jdeidet el-Metn 90656, Lebanon University Lyon, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, ISA-UMR 5280, 69622, Villeurbanne