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

Recent advances in organocatalytic atroposelective reactions

• Henrich Szabados and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 55–121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.6

Non-covalent organocatalyzed enantioselective cyclization reactions of α,β-unsaturated imines

• Sergio Torres-Oya and
• Mercedes Zurro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3221–3255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.268

• -diamino derivative 37 in a good yield and an excellent enantioselectivity. Brønsted bases Cinchona alkaloids have been established as highly efficient chiral organocatalysts, capable to engage in a wide array of enantioselective processes [35]. They possess a unique structure. Firstly, the bulky

• catalysts are synthesized by joining together two fragments of cinchona alkaloids. In this manner, it is possible to obtain a symmetric catalyst, which can engage in hydrogen bonding interactions and deprotonation processes. Although they were originally used for Sharpless dihydroxylation, they have been

gem-Difluorovinyl and trifluorovinyl Michael acceptors in the synthesis of α,β-unsaturated fluorinated and nonfluorinated amides

• Monika Bilska-Markowska,
• Marcin Kaźmierczak,
• Wojciech Jankowski and
• Marcin Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2946–2953, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.247

• of 1-fluorobis(phenylsulfonyl)methane (FBSM) to α,β-unsaturated ketones with cinchona alkaloids [9]. Fluorinated Michael acceptors usually contain one fluorine atom or a trifluoromethyl group in the structure [10][11][12]. There are also known examples of gem-difluoroalkenes being used as Michael

Towards an asymmetric β-selective addition of azlactones to allenoates

• Behzad Nasiri,
• Ghaffar Pasdar,
• Paul Zebrowski,
• Katharina Röser,
• David Naderer and
• Mario Waser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1504–1509, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.134

• these catalysts (Table 1, entries 1–4, other cinchona alkaloid-based ammonium salt derivatives as well as free base cinchona alkaloids were tested too but did not allow for any improvement). Using the established and commercially available Maruoka catalysts B1 and B2 [39] next turned out to be more

Synthesis and optical properties of bis- and tris-alkynyl-2-trifluoromethylquinolines

• Stefan Jopp,
• Franziska Spruner von Mertz,
• Peter Ehlers,
• Alexander Villinger and
• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1246–1255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.107

• which can be found in several natural and synthetic products and many of them show interesting pharmacological properties [1][2][3]. Quinine, for example, is a widely known natural product which was first isolated from the cinchona tree besides many other quinoline-containing cinchona alkaloids [4]. It

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

• metal-catalyzed reactions [31][32][33][34][35][36]. The most successful among them are the ʟ-proline-catalyzed reactions of enolizable aldehydes with nitrosoarenes [37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Besides ʟ-proline and its derivatives, various secondary amines derived from BINOL and cinchona alkaloids were

Recent advances in organocatalytic asymmetric aza-Michael reactions of amines and amides

• Pratibha Sharma,
• Raakhi Gupta and
• Raj K. Bansal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2585–2610, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.173

• asymmetric aza-MR. Thus, the review includes the examples wherein cinchona alkaloids, squaramides, chiral amines, phase-transfer catalysts and chiral bifunctional thioureas have been used, which activate the substrates through hydrogen bond formation. Most of these reactions are accompanied by high yields

• compounds; however, in order to comply with the requirements of a mini review, additions of amines and amides only will be included. 1. Non-covalent bonding organocatalytic aza-Michael reactions Organocatalysts catalyzing aza-MRs through mainly hydrogen bonding include cinchona alkaloids, squaramide

• derivatives, phase-transfer catalysts and bifunctional thiourea derivatives. 1.1 Reactions catalyzed by chiral cinchona alkaloid derivatives Cai et al. prepared and used a number of organocatalysts from Cinchona alkaloids for the aza-MR of aniline (1) with chalcone (2) to obtain the adducts 4 in poor to very

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

• synthesis of a potent CRTH2 receptor antagonist. Keywords: alkylation; base-free; cinchona alkaloids; CRTH2 antagonist; hydrogen-bonding; oxindole; phase-transfer catalysis; Introduction The 2-oxindole scaffold is an important motif present in a myriad of natural products. Among 2-oxidole derivatives, 3,3

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

• ammonium salts derived from cinchona alkaloids [28]. Therefore, the asymmetric synthesis of coumarin derivatives is herein presented according to the activation mode, i.e., via covalent or non-covalent bonding. Furthermore, the use of bifunctional catalysts and multicatalysis are discussed as well

• of 2-hydroxycinnamaldehydes is important for the success of the employed catalytic system. Finally, but not least, the phase-transfer chiral organocatalysts have also been highly explored [72][73]. Most of the PTCs are based on the skeletons of cinchona alkaloids and chiral binaphthyls, though, more

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

• reported by Banks when quinuclidine was N-fluorinated with Selectfluor [62] (Scheme 67). Subsequently, in 2001, Shibata et al. presented full details of their studies including the definitive identification of N-fluorinated cinchona alkaloids by X-ray crystallography analysis and further applications [96

• -fluoro salts of cinchona alkaloids through the reaction of the alkaloids with Selectfluor [97]. Following the precedent from Banks’s fluorine-transfer reaction from Selectfluor to the N-site of quinuclidine [62], Cahard et al. isolated four N-fluorocinchona alkaloid salts, F-CD-BF4 30-1, F-CN-BF4 30-2, F

The synthesis of chiral β-naphthyl-β-sulfanyl ketones via enantioselective sulfa-Michael reaction in the presence of a bifunctional cinchona/sulfonamide organocatalyst

• Deniz Tözendemir and
• Cihangir Tanyeli

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 494–503, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.43

• %) catalyst loading. Selected enantiomerically enriched sulfa-Michael addition products were subjected to oxidation to obtain the corresponding sulfones. Keywords: asymmetric synthesis; bifunctional catalysis; cinchona alkaloids; organocatalysis; sulfa-Michael reaction; Introduction Derivatives of the

• naturally occurring cinchona alkaloids have shown remarkable performance as organocatalysts for stereoselective synthesis in the past decade [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Among them, quinine-derived organocatalysts make a noteworthy appearance in the formation of new stereogenic centres, which can serve as valuable

Controlling the stereochemistry in 2-oxo-aldehyde-derived Ugi adducts through the cinchona alkaloid-promoted electrophilic fluorination

• Yuqing Wang,
• Gaigai Wang,
• Anatoly A. Peshkov,
• Ruwei Yao,
• Muhammad Hasan,
• Manzoor Zaman,
• Chao Liu,
• Stepan Kashtanov,
• Olga P. Pereshivko and
• Vsevolod A. Peshkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1963–1973, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.163

• alkaloid-promoted electrophilic fluorination producing enantioenriched post-Ugi adducts fluorinated at the peptidyl position. Keywords: cinchona alkaloids; electrophilic fluorination; enantioselective synthesis; 2-oxo-aldehydes; Ugi reaction; Introduction Multicomponent reactions (MCRs) [1][2][3][4][5][6

• fluorinations with QD and DHQD led to the reversed stereoselectivity as compared to the reactions with Q and DHQ. For the benzylamine-derived substrates 8a–c benzyl ether derivatives of cinchona alkaloids favored the formation of the same enantiomer of 12 as their free alcohol counterparts (e.g., both Q-Bn and

• Q favored the formation of the same enantiomer of 12). In contrast, for the substrates 8d–g derived from aromatic amines a reversed trend was observed. In case of 8d–g, benzyl ether derivatives of cinchona alkaloids favored the formation of the opposite enantiomer of 12 as compared to the one

New α- and β-cyclodextrin derivatives with cinchona alkaloids used in asymmetric organocatalytic reactions

• Iveta Chena Tichá,
• Simona Hybelbauerová and
• Jindřich Jindřich

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 830–839, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.80

• recycle catalysts. However, only a limited number of organocatalytic moieties and functional groups have been attached to CD scaffolds so far. Cinchona alkaloids are commonly used to catalyze a wide range of enantioselective reactions. Thus, in this study, we report the preparation of new α- and β-CD

• derivatives monosubstituted with cinchona alkaloids (cinchonine, cinchonidine, quinine and quinidine) on the primary rim through a CuAAC click reaction. Subsequently, permethylated analogs of these cinchona alkaloid–CD derivatives also were synthesized and the catalytic activity of all derivatives was

• disubstituted CD derivatives performed similarly to monosubstituted CDs. Therefore, these new CD derivatives with cinchona alkaloids effectively catalyze asymmetric allylic aminations and have the potential to be successfully applied in other enantioselective reactions. Keywords: asymmetric allylic amination

Enantioselective phase-transfer catalyzed alkylation of 1-methyl-7-methoxy-2-tetralone: an effective route to dezocine

• Ruipeng Li,
• Zhenren Liu,
• Liang Chen,
• Jing Pan and
• Weicheng Zhou

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1421–1427, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.119

• enantiomeric ratio of 79:21. This method can be easily performed in large scale. In addition, the structure–activity relationships for the cinchona alkaloids catalysts were elucidated. Experimental All solvents and reagents were of commercial sources and used without further purification. Melting points were

Recent applications of chiral calixarenes in asymmetric catalysis

• Mustafa Durmaz,
• Erkan Halay and
• Selahattin Bozkurt

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1389–1412, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.117

• catalytic amounts of chiral phase-transfer agents [32][33][34]. Although the literature contains examples of calixarene derivatives used as phase-transfer catalysts (PTCs) [35], the first asymmetric quaternary ammonium salts derived from cinchona alkaloids based on the calixarene skeleton were prepared by

Synthesis of chiral 3-substituted 3-amino-2-oxindoles through enantioselective catalytic nucleophilic additions to isatin imines

• Hélène Pellissier

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1349–1369, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.114

• ligands and organocatalysts. For example, remarkable enantioselectivities of up to 94 to >99% ee have been reported in recent examples of Mannich reactions promoted by organocatalysts, as varied as cinchona-alkaloids, squaramides, phosphoric acids, simple primary amines and L-diphenylprolinol

• organocatalyzed by cinchona-alkaloids, and unprecedented Friedel–Crafts reactions of isatin imines with naphthols and hydroxyquinolines promoted by cinchona-alkaloid-derived thioureas and cinchona-alkaloid-derived squaramides. Slightly lower enantioselectivity levels of up to 94% ee were described in aza-Henry

Novel amide-functionalized chloramphenicol base bifunctional organocatalysts for enantioselective alcoholysis of meso-cyclic anhydrides

• Lingjun Xu,
• Shuwen Han,
• Linjie Yan,
• Haifeng Wang,
• Haihui Peng and
• Fener Chen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 309–317, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.19

• stereocontrol in alcoholytic catalytic asymmetric desymmetrizations of meso-cyclic anhydrides is of special interest [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Major families originating from natural products include cinchona alkaloids [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and proteinogenic α-amino acids such as proline [18][19

Nucleophilic fluoroalkylation/cyclization route to fluorinated phthalides

• Masanori Inaba,
• Tatsuya Sakai,
• Shun Shinada,
• Tsuyuka Sugiishi,
• Yuta Nishina,
• Norio Shibata and
• Hideki Amii

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 182–186, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.12

• ). Previously, Shibata et al. reported a cinchona alkaloid/Me4NF-catalyzed nucleophilic enantioselective trifluoromethylation of carbonyl compounds [33][34][35]. Initially, we tried to conduct the reaction of 2-cyanobenzaldehyde (2) with CF3–SiMe3 in the presence of cinchona alkaloids 9/TMAF combination (Table

A permutation approach to the assignment of the configuration to diastereomeric tetrads by comparison of experimental and ab initio calculated differences in NMR data

• Przemysław J. Boratyński

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 2478–2485, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.245

• Cinchona alkaloids 1–4 obtained in our laboratory were analyzed (Figure 1, for references, see Supporting Information File 1). The configurations of these derivatives were established based on previous X-ray studies for compounds 2a and 3d, NOESY experiments combined with molecular modeling for compounds

Chiral phase-transfer catalysis in the asymmetric α-heterofunctionalization of prochiral nucleophiles

• Johannes Schörgenhumer,
• Maximilian Tiffner and
• Mario Waser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 1753–1769, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.170

• , cinchona alkaloids remained the preferred chiral backbones for novel phase-transfer catalysts and applications thereof until the beginning of the 21st century. Pioneering contributions with these powerful catalysts were reported by the groups of O’Donnell [27], Lygo [28], and Corey [29]. The turn of the

• cinchona-based PTCs A for such α-fluorination reactions was reported in 2013 by the groups of Meng and Lu [76]. By screening a variety of differently modified ammonium salts A, they found that the introduction of sterically demanding 1-adamantoyl esters in the 9-position of the cinchona alkaloids in

• alkaloid-based organocatalysts to carry out the α-trifluoromethylthiolation of β-ketoesters 1 by using the hypervalent iodine-based CF3S-transfer reagent 36 in an asymmetric fashion. Very interestingly, they realized that for indanone-based ketoesters 1 (with n = 1) simple cinchona alkaloids themselves

Bifunctional organocatalysts for the asymmetric synthesis of axially chiral benzamides

• Ryota Miyaji,
• Yuuki Wada,
• Akira Matsumoto,
• Keisuke Asano and
• Seijiro Matsubara

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 1518–1523, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.151

• solvent (Table 1, entries 4–7). Other brominating reagents (Figure 1) were also investigated; however, NBA (4a) still afforded the best enantioselective results (Table 1, entries 8–10). In addition, other bifunctional organocatalysts derived from easily available cinchona alkaloids exhibited similarly

A chiral analog of the bicyclic guanidine TBD: synthesis, structure and Brønsted base catalysis

• Mariano Goldberg,
• Denis Sartakov,
• Jan W. Bats,
• Michael Bolte and
• Michael W. Göbel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 1870–1876, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.176

• chiral counterions in less polar solvents. Up to 61% ee could be obtained using cinchona alkaloids as catalysts [26]. The subsequent work of Tan and co-workers with guanidine catalyst 8 achieved enantioselectivities as high as 99% ee [19]. In recent years functionalized chiral amines have been

Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of biologically important 3-hydroxyoxindoles: an update

• Bin Yu,
• Hui Xing,
• De-Quan Yu and
• Hong-Min Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 1000–1039, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.98

• catalysts Cinchona alkaloids and their derivatives have been widely used as chiral catalysts in many reactions [44] and also show synthetic utilities in the synthesis of enantiomerically pure 3-substituted 3-hydroxyoxindoles. In 2013, Wu and co-workers reported the cinchona alkaloid (cat. 14)-catalyzed

1H-Imidazol-4(5H)-ones and thiazol-4(5H)-ones as emerging pronucleophiles in asymmetric catalysis

• Antonia Mielgo and
• Claudio Palomo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 918–936, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.90

• acceptors in reactions promoted by bifunctional Brønsted bases. 1.2.1 Nitroalkenes as acceptors. Investigation of the base-catalyzed Michael addition reaction of 2-thio-1H-imidazol-4(5H)-ones 4 to nitroalkenes 5 [55] revealed that cinchona alkaloids such as quinine, (DHQ)2Pyr or even thiourea tertiary amine