Green and sustainable approaches for the Friedel–Crafts reaction between aldehydes and indoles

• Periklis X. Kolagkis,
• Eirini M. Galathri and
• Christoforos G. Kokotos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 379–426, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.36

• pharmaceutical and biological activities. Among indole derivatives, bis(indolyl)methanes (BIMs) are profoundly interesting, due to their wide range of pharmaceutical properties. The most common approach involves the electrophilic substitution of various aldehydes and ketones by indoles, utilizing either protic

• of 20 mg of the P4VPy–CuO nanocompound at 80 °C proved sufficient, under solvent-free conditions, at providing an optimum isolated product yield of 92% after 5 minutes. Various indole derivatives and carbonyl compounds were explored, where it was found that ketones were less reactive, due to their

Chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation of 3,3-difluoro-3H-indoles

• Yumei Wang,
• Guangzhu Wang,
• Yanping Zhu and
• Kaiwu Dong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 205–211, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.20

• asymmetric reduction studies focused on alkyl or aryl-substituted 3H-indoles whereas the synthesis of chiral difluorinated indole derivatives could have potential applications in pharmaceutical chemistry. Herein, an organocatalyzed transfer hydrogenation of 3,3-difluoro-3H-indoles to obtain fluorinated 3H

• (2p). However, when using 3,3-difluoro-2-(naphthalen-2-ylethynyl)-3H-indole or 3,3-difluoro-2-phenyl-3H-indole as the substrate, the generated indoles underwent fast HF elimination/aromatization and finally gave indole derivatives (2q and 2r) in almost quantitative yields. To examine the efficiency

• spectroscopy and the ee values were determined by chiral HPLC. Structures of bioactive fluorinated indole derivatives. Proposed mechanism for the transfer hydrogenation reaction. Synthesis of chiral indolines via asymmetric reduction. Substrate scope of 3,3-difluoro-3H-indoles. Experiment at 2 mmol scale

Visible-light-induced radical cascade cyclization: a catalyst-free synthetic approach to trifluoromethylated heterocycles

• Chuan Yang,
• Wei Shi,
• Jian Tian,
• Lin Guo,
• Yating Zhao and
• Wujiong Xia

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 118–124, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.12

• radicals. This method allows the efficient synthesis of various indole derivatives without the need of photocatalysts or transition-metal catalysts. Mechanism experiments indicate that the process involves a radical chain process initiated by the homolysis of Umemoto's reagent. This straightforward method

• enables a rapid access to heterocycles containing a trifluoromethyl group. Keywords: cascade reaction; indole derivatives; photocatalysis; radical chain process; trifluoromethylation; Introduction Dihydropyrido[1,2-a]indolone (DHPI) skeletons are commonly found in natural products and pharmaceutical

• (Table 1, entry 16). With the optimized conditions in hand, we started to explore the scope of this photoinduced transformation. Various alkene-tethered indole derivatives were subjected to the reaction. Remarkably, a range of dihydropyrido[1,2-a]indolones bearing a trifluoromethyl group were obtained in

N-Sulfenylsuccinimide/phthalimide: an alternative sulfenylating reagent in organic transformations

• Fatemeh Doraghi,
• Seyedeh Pegah Aledavoud,
• Mehdi Ghanbarlou,
• Bagher Larijani and
• Mohammad Mahdavi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1471–1502, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.106

• the HNO species, the pyrroline structure could oxidize and aromatize to the pyrrole ring 61 (Scheme 26). In 2021, Anbarasan and co-workers were able to obtain a diverse range of sulfenylated products 64 in a Co-catalyzed C2-sulfenylation and C2,C3-disulfenylation of indole derivatives with N

• . Co-catalyzed C2-sulfenylation and C2,C3-disulfenylation of indole derivatives. Plausible catalytic cycle for Co-catalyzed C2-sulfenylation and C2,C3-disulfenylation of indoles. C–H thioarylation of electron-rich arenes by iron(III) triflimide catalysis. Difunctionalization of alkynyl bromides with

Consecutive four-component synthesis of trisubstituted 3-iodoindoles by an alkynylation–cyclization–iodination–alkylation sequence

• Nadia Ledermann,
• Alae-Eddine Moubsit and
• Thomas J. J. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1379–1385, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.99

• [9][10][11] and their preparation is an evergreen in organic synthesis [12][13][14][15]. Although the classical Fischer indole synthesis provides a very reliable and broadly applicable access to indole derivatives [16][17][18], striving for new indole syntheses is ongoing. In particular, metal

• -trisubstitued indoles 8 in good yield (Scheme 4). The 1,2,3-trisubstitued indoles 8 were unambiguously confirmed by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, as well as by mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. Miura et al. could show that 1-alkyl-2,3-diarylindoles constitute a class of blue-emissive indole derivatives

Aromatic C–H bond functionalization through organocatalyzed asymmetric intermolecular aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction: a recent update

• Anup Biswas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 956–981, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.72

• process was achieved through the C3–H functionalization of indole derivatives 4. The nucleophile favors the attack at the imine carbon included in the seven-membered ring of compound 8 to generate an aza-quaternary stereocenter containing trifluoromethyl, pyrrole/indole, and benzoazepinoindole moieties

• products 23 framed with an aza-quaternary stereocenter. Indole derivatives without any substitution in the heterocyclic ring participated in the reaction through the C3 position smoothly providing the products with appreciable yields and enantiocontrol. Two examples were demonstrated with 3-alkyl

• -derived chiral phosphoric acid catalysts P17 and P18. The electrophile was the α-trifluoromethyl-containing imine 52 which directed the C2 functionalization in the pyrrole moiety with catalyst P17 and a C3 substitution in indole derivatives using catalyst P18 forming the trifluoromethylated aza-quaternary

Transition-metal-catalyzed domino reactions of strained bicyclic alkenes

• Austin Pounder,
• Eric Neufeld,
• Peter Myler and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 487–540, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.38

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

• transformation than 6e. It is noteworthy here that all the products were purified by column chromatography. A small library of C-3-substituted pyrido[3,4-b]indole derivatives was designed and synthesized which is presented in Figure 4. All the products were characterized using NMR, FTIR and mass spectrometry

• . Fluorescence studies Fluorescence studies of these C-3-substituted pyrido[3,4-b]indole derivatives were examined and various parameters (contact time, concentration and solvent) were optimized for obtaining the best results using 7dA as a model substrate. Fluorescence emission spectra for optimizing the

• min; concentration: 5 × 10−6 M; solvent: CHCl3. The results of the fluorescence studies of all the C-3 substituted pyrido[3,4-b]indole derivatives are presented in Table 1. Structure–fluorescence activity relationships From the results presented in Table 1, some structure–fluorescence activity

Copper-catalyzed multicomponent reactions for the efficient synthesis of diverse spirotetrahydrocarbazoles

• Shao-Cong Zhan,
• Ren-Jie Fang,
• Jing Sun and
• Chao-Guo Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 796–808, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.80

• developed the practical synthetic values of the well-known Levy reaction by using inactivated indole derivatives. The outcome of diastereoselectivity of the reaction was clearly elucidated by determination of the several single crystal structures and the analysis of the reaction mechanism. The experimental

Synthesis of 5-unsubstituted dihydropyrimidinone-4-carboxylates from deep eutectic mixtures

• Sangram Gore,
• Sundarababu Baskaran and
• Burkhard König

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 331–336, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.37

• reaction, synthesis of glycosylurea, dihydropyrimidinones, pyrimidopyrimidinediones, and functionalized indole derivatives in this novel and green reaction medium [34][35][36][37][38]. We have also developed an efficient method for the synthesis of trisubstituted hydantoin derivatives from β,γ-unsaturated

Chemoselective N-acylation of indoles using thioesters as acyl source

• Tianri Du,
• Xiangmu Wei,
• Honghong Xu,
• Xin Zhang,
• Ruiru Fang,
• Zheng Yuan,
• Zhi Liang and
• Yahui Li

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 89–94, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.9

• of the N(sp2)–H bond by using a catalytic amount of DBU for the preparation of indoleamides [14] (Scheme 1, A2). Subsequently, Sundén reported an efficient chemoselective method for the synthesis of indoleamide by oxidative organocatalytic reaction of indole derivatives and conjugated aldehydes under

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

• -carbonyl alkyl bromides 147 and indole derivatives 146 (Scheme 30) [124]. Although the reaction operated in the absence of the iron catalyst, its use is crucial for high yielding reactions. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest the reaction proceeds through a radical addition of the carbon-centered alkyl

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

• high enantioselectivities (up to 65–91%) [40]. Rajasekar et al. developed an efficient one-pot tandem rhodium(II)/chiral squaramide relay catalysis for the enantioselective construction of dihydro-β-carbolines 37 from the Michael reaction of suitably substituted indole derivatives 34 with N-sulfonyl

Efficient synthesis of polyfunctionalized carbazoles and pyrrolo[3,4-c]carbazoles via domino Diels–Alder reaction

• Ren-Jie Fang,
• Chen Yan,
• Jing Sun,
• Ying Han and
• Chao-Guo Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2425–2432, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.159

• with benzylideneacetone gave the desired carbazoles 6m and 6n albeit in significantly lower yields. Thus, this one-pot domino reaction successfully constructed carbazoles with four substituents on the benzene ring from the corresponding indole derivatives with two molecules of chalcones. It should be

Advances in mercury(II)-salt-mediated cyclization reactions of unsaturated bonds

• Sumana Mandal,
• Raju D. Chaudhari and
• Goutam Biswas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2348–2376, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.153

• -methylenepiperidine 169 initially, which further isomerizes to form 2-methyl-1,2-dehydropiperidine (170, Scheme 49) [109]. Similarly, in 2007 Kurisaki et al. had also prepared indole derivatives 172 with excellent yields from 2-ethynylaniline derivatives 171 upon the treatment of catalytic amounts of Hg(OTf)2 at room

• ]. Recently, a Hg(OTf)2-catalyzed one-pot cyclization of nitroalkyne 175 and alkyne had been reported to synthesize indole derivatives 176. Based on this strategy, the one-pot method to synthesize indole derivatives had been developed [112]. Similarly, benzo[c]isoxazole was also formed in excellent yields

• -methylenepiperidine. a) Preparation of indole derivatives through cycloisomerization of 2-ethynylaniline and b) its mechanism. a) Hg(OTf)2-catalyzed synthesis of 3-indolinones and 3-coumaranones and b) simplified mechanism. a) Hg(OTf)2-catalyzed one pot cyclization of nitroalkyne and b) its plausible mechanism

On the application of 3d metals for C–H activation toward bioactive compounds: The key step for the synthesis of silver bullets

• Renato L. Carvalho,
• Amanda S. de Miranda,
• Mateus P. Nunes,
• Roberto S. Gomes,
• Guilherme A. M. Jardim and
• Eufrânio N. da Silva Júnior

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1849–1938, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.126

• C-2 position of indole derivatives bearing peptide units in the C-3 position (Scheme 35A). This process led to several activated products in good yields, including one whose basic structure is already known to present important biological activities (106) [187] (Scheme 35B). Still in this work

Iodine-catalyzed electrophilic substitution of indoles: Synthesis of (un)symmetrical diindolylmethanes with a quaternary carbon center

• Thanigaimalai Pillaiyar,
• Masoud Sedaghati,
• Andhika B. Mahardhika,
• Lukas L. Wendt and
• Christa E. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1464–1475, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.102

• via an iodine-catalyzed coupling reaction of trifluoromethyl(indolyl)phenylmethanol with indole derivatives. This method has also been extended to the synthesis of pentafluoro-ethylated and heptafluoro-propylated DIMs in excellent yields. Selected compounds were evaluated in radioligand binding

• mol % to 5 mol % reduced the product formation (Table 1, entry 18). Having optimized the reaction conditions (I2, 10 mol %, 40 °C for 5 h in MeCN; entry 16, Table 1), we explored the scope of the reaction. At first, we employed differently substituted indole derivatives (Table 2). A large variety of

• phenyl ring of 1 was replaced by the heteroaryl moiety thiophene (1i), reacted efficiently with a series of indole derivatives (2a, 2d, 2h) providing yields of 82–90% (3v–x). We further extended this protocol to the preparation of unsymmetrical pentafluoroethylated and heptafluoropropylated DIM

Synthetic reactions driven by electron-donor–acceptor (EDA) complexes

• Zhonglie Yang,
• Yutong Liu,
• Kun Cao,
• Xiaobin Zhang,
• Hezhong Jiang and
• Jiahong Li

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 771–799, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.67

• 22 can be afforded easily (Scheme 7). This procedure offers a novel cyclization method with bifunctionalization, causing a multicomponent reaction of vinylaniline, halide, and sulfonylate to give corresponding indole derivatives. Furthermore, a wide variety of applicable substrates and good

• indole derivatives 100 under blue-light irradiation (Scheme 35). Given the UV–vis spectra of the reaction mixture and its components, there was no evidence of the formation of a ternary EDA complex between Katritzky salt 99, 98, and morpholine. Moreover, the TDDFT calculation showed that electron

CF₃-substituted carbocations: underexploited intermediates with great potential in modern synthetic chemistry

• Anthony J. Fernandes,
• Armen Panossian,
• Bastien Michelet,
• Agnès Martin-Mingot,
• Frédéric R. Leroux and
• Sébastien Thibaudeau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 343–378, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.32

• generate CF3-substituted iminium ions able to promote Friedel–Crafts alkylations [110][111]. Ma et al. exploited this mode of activation in a Brønsted acid-catalyzed three-component asymmetric reaction [112]. Mixing hemiacetal 175, arylaniline 176, and indole derivatives 149 in the presence of a catalytic

When metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization meets visible-light photocatalysis

• Lucas Guillemard and
• Joanna Wencel-Delord

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1754–1804, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.147

• , thus rendering this methodology well suitable for the synthesis of a variety of indole derivatives. Subsequently, the panel of oxidative Heck coupling reactions via a photoredox catalytic system combined with C–H activation using Rh [74] or Ru [75] was extended by Rueping’s group. In 2014, Rueping

• applied to various C–H functionalization reactions [92][93]. In 2017, Noël, Van der Eycken and co-workers hence astutely combined the dual catalysis strategy with flow microreactor technology to achieve C2-acylation of indole derivatives with aldehydes (Figure 30) [94]. Both electron-rich and electron

• arylation with diazonium salts. The same year, Jana’s group independently reported an analogous approach allowing the C2-acylation of indole derivatives with aldehydes (Figure 32). The only difference in comparison with Noël and Van der Eycken’s procedure concerned the nature of the photocatalyst used for

Palladium-catalyzed regio- and stereoselective synthesis of aryl and 3-indolyl-substituted 4-methylene-3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-1(2H)-ones

• Valeria Nori,
• Antonio Arcadi,
• Armando Carlone,
• Fabio Marinelli and
• Marco Chiarini

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1084–1091, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.95

• -assisted cyclization and reductive elimination from the resulting σ-indolylpalladium complex C (Scheme 5). The reaction led to the stereoselective formation of indole derivatives 6ba–fc (aryl, heteroaryl and vinyl groups were allowed in substrates 5) in good to high yield. The stereochemistry of compounds

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

• , and Grignard reagents. Review Copper-catalysed C–C bond-forming reactions at the heterocycle The direct synthesis of chiral heterocyclic molecules from pyridine, quinolone, or indole derivatives is advantageous due to the abundance of such building blocks. Unfortunately, establishing catalytic

Reaction of indoles with aromatic fluoromethyl ketones: an efficient synthesis of trifluoromethyl(indolyl)phenylmethanols using K₂CO₃/n-Bu₄PBr in water

• Thanigaimalai Pillaiyar,
• Masoud Sedaghati and
• Gregor Schnakenburg

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 778–790, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.71

• have been used as key precursors for the construction of complex indole derivatives that would be useful in pharmaceuticals as drugs and agrochemicals [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The simple (1H-indol-3-yl)methanol, a breakdown product of glucobrassicin, which can be found in

• broad substrate scope, functional group tolerance, and simple purification technique is highly desired. In our continuous effort of synthesizing indole derivatives [29][30][31], herein, we report an efficient synthesis of multiple halogen-substituted (1H-indol-3-yl)methanol derivatives in the presence

Cascade trifluoromethylthiolation and cyclization of N-[(3-aryl)propioloyl]indoles

• Ming-Xi Bi,
• Shuai Liu,
• Yangen Huang,
• Xiu-Hua Xu and
• Feng-Ling Qing

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 657–662, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.62

• involved in these transformations. Keywords: cyclization; indole derivatives; oxidation; radical reaction; trifluoromethylthiolation; Introduction The trifluoromethylthio (SCF3) group could significantly improve the lipophilicity of organic molecules as shown by its high Hansch constant (π = 1.44 for

Architecture and synthesis of P,N-heterocyclic phosphine ligands

• Wisdom A. Munzeiwa,
• Bernard Omondi and
• Vincent O. Nyamori

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 362–383, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.35

• methanesulfonyl chloride mediated cyclization of amide 97 and reaction with methyl iodide or methoxymethyl chloride afforded the N-substituted indole derivatives 99 (R = Me, MOM). The desired phosphinylated compounds 102 were obtained via three routes: The dicyclohexylphosphine derivatives 102a and b were only