Asymmetric synthesis of β-amino cyanoesters with contiguous tetrasubstituted carbon centers by halogen-bonding catalysis with chiral halonium salt

• Yasushi Yoshida,
• Maho Aono,
• Takashi Mino and
• Masami Sakamoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 547–555, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.43

• product was obtained in moderate diastereo- and enantioselectivity, however, chloronium salt 9c did not show significant catalytic activity, and the product was formed in nearly the same yield as that obtained without a catalyst with low stereoselectivity. From these observations, bromonium salt 9a was

• , the reaction catalyzed by only 1 mol % of iodonium salt 9b provided the opposite diastereomer of 17a as the major product compared with that without a catalyst, which revealed the high catalytic activity of our catalyst. Further reaction conditions optimization was conducted using 9a as a catalyst

Beyond symmetric self-assembly and effective molarity: unlocking functional enzyme mimics with robust organic cages

• Keith G. Andrews

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 421–443, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.30

• ]. Lattices can also contain defects, which may affect catalytic activity unpredictably [228]. Nonetheless, macroscale structures, like those that arise from the stacking in 2D COFs, can contribute to catalysis, for instance dense arrays of aligned C–H bonds can provide CH–π interactions in Diels–Alder

• (increased flexibility) (Figure 9B) [41]. The ability to tune catalytic activity by tuning the cage rigidity, conformation, or dynamics is certainly an advantage rather than a liability [395][398][399][400][401][402]. It is perhaps unsurprising that the balance of rigidity and flexibility [403][404

Red light excitation: illuminating photocatalysis in a new spectrum

• Lucas Fortier,
• Corentin Lefebvre and
• Norbert Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 296–326, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.22

• sacrificial reducing agents (Scheme 6), contrasting with traditional blue-light photocatalysis which led to substrate decomposition [33][34]. The axial ligands on the ruthenium phthalocyanin complex, particularly electron-deficient pyridyl groups, were found to influence the catalytic activity by stabilizing

Cu(OTf)₂-catalyzed multicomponent reactions

• Sara Colombo,
• Camilla Loro,
• Egle M. Beccalli,
• Gianluigi Broggini and
• Marta Papis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 122–145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.7

• ; heteropolycycles; multicomponent reactions; one-pot reaction; Introduction Copper has gained a relevant role in organic synthesis as an alternative to precious metals due to its low toxicity, ease of handling, high catalytic activity, and cost-effectiveness [1][2]. In recent years, Cu(OTf)2 has significantly

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

Advances in the use of metal-free tetrapyrrolic macrocycles as catalysts

• Mandeep K. Chahal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3085–3112, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.257

• , photocatalysts, and electrocatalysts are presented here. The effect of macrocyclic structural modifications such as their functionalization with different substituents, distortion from planarity, conformational flexibility and rigidity towards catalytic activity are presented, highlighting the potential of these

• other binding sites required for substrate binding and/or promotion of the catalytic activity. Past studies have shown that modifying the porphyrin core with urea functionalities and amino acid substituents leads to the formation of ureaporphyrins, which significantly enhance sugar binding in non-polar

• . Changes in the reduction or oxidation state can alter redox behavior, thereby affecting catalytic activity. For example, it has been reported that 2,3,5,7,8,10,12,13,15,17,18,20-dodecasubstituted free-base porphyrins and their mono/diprotonated derivatives are highly distorted with a good access to the

Recent advances in transition-metal-free arylation reactions involving hypervalent iodine salts

• Ritu Mamgain,
• Kokila Sakthivel and
• Fateh V. Singh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2891–2920, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.243

• easily recycled just by washing it with ethanol, retaining its catalytic activity for arylation up to three cycles without any compromise. Thus, this procedure could be considered economic as well as environment-friendly. In 2019, Kalek and co-workers reported the regioselective C–H arylation of 2

Synthesis and antimycotic activity of new derivatives of imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines

• Dmitriy Yu. Vandyshev,
• Daria A. Mangusheva,
• Khidmet S. Shikhaliev,
• Kirill A. Scherbakov,
• Oleg N. Burov,
• Alexander D. Zagrebaev,
• Tatiana N. Khmelevskaya,
• Alexey S. Trenin and
• Fedor I. Zubkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2806–2817, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.236

• of the catalytic activity of CYP51. A number of previous studies confirmed the efficacy of azole compounds and their derivatives against a variety of strains and clinical isolates of the genus Candida. Nevertheless, the increased use of azole antifungals for the therapy of both mucosal and systemic

5th International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis (ISySyCat2023)

• Anthony J. Burke and
• Elisabete P. Carreiro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2704–2707, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.227

• carbene (NHC) framework from polysubstituted aminoimidazo[5,1-b]oxazol-6-ium salts, which demonstrated strong catalytic activity in gold-catalyzed alkyne hydration and arylative cyclization reactions [14]. The synthesis of this new carbene involved the use of a novel nitrenoid reagent that was

• time-consuming, complex, and expensive. Consequently, it is of utmost interest to immobilize them for reuse but without affecting their catalytic activity. The main factors discussed were the type of support, immobilization, and interaction between the support and the organocatalyst. The particular

Computational design for enantioselective CO₂ capture: asymmetric frustrated Lewis pairs in epoxide transformations

• Maxime Ferrer,
• Iñigo Iribarren,
• Tim Renningholtz,
• Ibon Alkorta and
• Cristina Trujillo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2668–2681, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.224

• catalysts located at the top. The top of the volcano plot corresponds to the scenario where the catalyst exhibits high catalytic activity, as it achieves an optimal balance in binding to the reactants, neither too strongly nor too weakly (Figure 1A, purple points). The catalysts with binding energies lower

• than the catalysts at the top show lower catalytic activity due to insufficient activation of the substrate (Figure 1A, green points). Conversely, catalysts that bind too strongly impede the detachment of the catalyst–reactant complex, thereby reducing the catalyst turnover (Figure 1A, pink points) [26

• F1_PB_Ph_CF3 from family 1 are exceptions as they exhibit acceptable catalytic activity. To identify the most suitable substituents, compounds of family 1 were excluded (except F1_PB_Ph_H and F1_PB_Ph_CF3), and a new volcano plot (Figure 6B) was generated. This plot employs the same axes as before (ΔG(pre-TS01

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

• ][19][20]. The catalytic activity of metallophthalocyanines originates from their planar, cyclic structure with a developed π-conjugation system. This makes the fifth and sixth coordination sites of the central metal ion available for coordination with the reactant molecules of the catalytic reaction

Evaluating the halogen bonding strength of a iodoloisoxazolium(III) salt

• Dominik L. Reinhard,
• Anna Schmidt,
• Marc Sons,
• Julian Wolf,
• Elric Engelage and
• Stefan M. Huber

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2401–2407, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.204

• resulting order of catalytic activity of these halogen-bond donors is in line with the above-mentioned previous benchmark of these activators [13]. Finally, also the new iodoloisoxazolium salt 7BArF was applied and a comparably high activity was observed (ca. 85% conversion after 2 h). This result marks

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

• optimization algorithm allowed them to discover multiple trade-off optima, enabling a scientist to select the ideal catalyst based on the specific requirements of catalytic activity and selectivity, while still accounting for catalyst generality through design of the objectives. Noticeably, data analysis

• witnessed a surge in data-driven approaches to improve the design of reactions, e.g., by inferring mechanistic features through statistical modelling, the generation of catalyst structures with increased catalytic activity, or optimising the reaction conditions to maximise the yield or selectivity. In

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

• , including the type of support, immobilisation techniques and the resulting interactions. In addition, the influence of these factors on catalytic activity, selectivity and recyclability is discussed, providing an insight into optimising the performance of immobilised organocatalysts for practical

• reaction components and the catalyst are in the same phase. Active catalytic sites are readily accessible to the reactants and therefore generally result in higher catalytic activity and selectivity [8]. As a result, homogeneous catalysis is generally preferred to heterogeneous catalysis, especially in the

• influence on the properties and thus performance of the resulting heterogeneous catalyst. However, immobilisation and structural modification introduce additional steps in the synthesis of the catalyst. Moreover, the catalytic activity and selectivity of immobilised catalysts are often lower than those of

2-Heteroarylethylamines in medicinal chemistry: a review of 2-phenethylamine satellite chemical space

• Carlos Nieto,
• Alejandro Manchado,
• Ángel García-González,
• David Díez and
• Narciso M. Garrido

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1880–1893, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.163

• tumor bed of a vast diversity of human tumor types. As phenylalanine is the preferred substrate of IL4I1 catalytic activity, Presset et al. [6] reported novel phenylalanine derivatives as a strategy to inhibit IL4I1 activity, as this enzyme has a preference for hydrophobic amino acids. Among them

The Groebke–Blackburn–Bienaymé reaction in its maturity: innovation and improvements since its 21st birthday (2019–2023)

• Cristina Martini,
• Muhammad Idham Darussalam Mardjan and
• Andrea Basso

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1839–1879, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.162

• conditions can also be found. 1.1 Metal and Brønsted acid catalysts As previously mentioned, Sc triflate is the most widely used Lewis acid for the GBB reaction, generally exhibiting higher catalytic activity compared to other metal triflates, such as Yb, In or Bi. No extensive work had been done on rare

• catalysts Noncovalent organocatalysts display a few advantages compared to the traditional metal Lewis acids, such as lower environmental impact, higher stability to air and moisture, easier removal from the GBB products. In this regard, Bolotin et al. in 2022 have reported the high catalytic activity of

• an effective chalcogen bond donation to the substrates, in place of the halogen bonding previously described. Although their catalytic activity was reported to be lower than the one of aryl iodonium derivatives, this research contributed to the scarce number of publications on the catalytic activity

Discovery of antimicrobial peptides clostrisin and cellulosin from Clostridium: insights into their structures, co-localized biosynthetic gene clusters, and antibiotic activity

• Moisés Alejandro Alejo Hernandez,
• Katia Pamela Villavicencio Sánchez,
• Rosendo Sánchez Morales,
• Karla Georgina Hernández-Magro Gil,
• David Silverio Moreno-Gutiérrez,
• Eddie Guillermo Sanchez-Rueda,
• Yanet Teresa-Cruz,
• Brian Choi,
• Armando Hernández Garcia,
• Alba Romero-Rodríguez,
• Oscar Juárez,
• Siseth Martínez-Caballero,
• Mario Figueroa and
• Corina-Diana Ceapă

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1800–1816, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.159

• domain from the clostrisin cluster). The latter contains the peptidase domain of CloPt1, as the complete ABC transporter was deemed too large to synthesize and express in this system. This strategy was functional in previous studies and retained catalytic activity without the rest of the transporter

Polymer degrading marine Microbulbifer bacteria: an un(der)utilized source of chemical and biocatalytic novelty

• Weimao Zhong and
• Vinayak Agarwal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1635–1651, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.146

• surfactants. Structural analysis and site-directed mutagenesis identified residues important for the catalytic activity of ChSase B6 [60]. In addition, a novel laminarinase, MaLamNA, was characterized and expressed in Pichia pastoris from the same bacterium. It functioned exclusively towards the substrate

Phenotellurazine redox catalysts: elements of design for radical cross-dehydrogenative coupling reactions

• Alina Paffen,
• Christopher Cremer and
• Frederic W. Patureau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1292–1297, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.112

• substitution patterns on the redox catalytic activity. Keywords: cross-dehydrogenative coupling; O2 activation; phenotellurazine; redox catalysis; Te catalysis; Introduction Tellurium catalysis has become increasingly important in recent years. This is due to its unique chalcogen bonding ability, thus

• in the structure, or else at different positions, in order to establish how their redox catalytic reactivity might be affected. Indeed, we learned recently that amino-arenes possess some level of redox catalytic activity by themselves, in the absence of a Te-center [34], and therefore wished to

• diverse electron-donating or -withdrawing functional groups all featured significantly inferior catalytic activity in the selected benchmark reaction (O2-mediated dehydrogenative phenothiazination of 4-phenylphenol). It can therefore be deduced that the N-bridging atom is important for catalytic activity

Cofactor-independent C–C bond cleavage reactions catalyzed by the AlpJ family of oxygenases in atypical angucycline biosynthesis

• Jinmin Gao,
• Liyuan Li,
• Shijie Shen,
• Guomin Ai,
• Bin Wang,
• Fang Guo,
• Tongjian Yang,
• Hui Han,
• Zhengren Xu,
• Guohui Pan and
• Keqiang Fan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1198–1206, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.102

• contraction reactions, yielding a benzofluorene intermediate 4 and the dimer 5, both featuring a kinamycin skeleton (Scheme 1) [11][12]. Recent investigations unveiled the catalytic activity of the O-methyltransferase-like protein AlpH, which catalyzes a unique SAM-independent coupling of ʟ-glutamylhydrazine

Manganese-catalyzed C–C and C–N bond formation with alcohols via borrowing hydrogen or hydrogen auto-transfer

• Mohd Farhan Ansari,
• Atul Kumar Maurya,
• Abhishek Kumar and
• Saravanakumar Elangovan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1111–1166, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.98

Synthesis of 1,4-azaphosphinine nucleosides and evaluation as inhibitors of human cytidine deaminase and APOBEC3A

• Maksim V. Kvach,
• Stefan Harjes,
• Harikrishnan M. Kurup,
• Geoffrey B. Jameson,
• Elena Harjes and
• Vyacheslav V. Filichev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1088–1098, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.96

• partially localised in the nucleus of cells and, in cancer cells, become genotoxic [24]. A3A and A3H are single-domain enzymes, whereas A3B is a double-domain enzyme, in which only the C-terminal domain (CTD) has catalytic activity, and the N-terminal domain (NTD) is responsible for binding of DNA and for

Research progress on the pharmacological activity, biosynthetic pathways, and biosynthesis of crocins

• Zhongwei Hua,
• Nan Liu and
• Xiaohui Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 741–752, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.68

• supply, overexpressing PsBCH-CsCCD2, and optimizing the fermentation medium, the yield of crocetin (1) reached 12.43 ± 0.62 mg/L in a 5 L bioreactor [115]. While CCD has a higher catalytic activity at low temperature, the biosynthesis of zeaxanthin (7) is more suited to a higher temperature. As such, Liu

• , and UGTs are the key players in crocin biosynthesis. Empowered by the genomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic analysis and biochemical characterization, many such enzymes have been identified. Some proteins, exemplified by GjCCD4a and GjUGT94E13, exhibit broad substrate promiscuity and high catalytic

• activity. Screening of novel enzymes for crocin biosynthesis and the directed evolution of known enzymes should facilitate the high-titer production of the key intermediates 5–7 etc. and the efficient conversion of these precursors into crocetin (1) and crocins. In conclusion, crocins are high-value plant

Evaluation of the enantioselectivity of new chiral ligands based on imidazolidin-4-one derivatives

• Jan Bartáček,
• Karel Chlumský,
• Jan Mrkvička,
• Lucie Paloušová,
• Miloš Sedlák and
• Pavel Drabina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 684–691, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.62

• based on derivatives of imidazolidin-4-one were synthesised and characterised. The catalytic activity and enantioselectivity of their corresponding copper(II) complexes were studied in asymmetric Henry reactions. It was found that the enantioselectivity of these catalysts is overall very high and

• donor ability to pyridine. This change reduces the ring size within the ligand structure, potentially increasing the space available for coordinating reacting species, thereby possibly enhancing catalytic activity and enantioselectivity. We also aimed to assess the impact of alkyl groups at the 5

• (i.e., temperature, reaction time, amount of catalyst, solvent) were adopted from the pilot study [5] for relevant comparison of catalyst characteristics. From Table 1 and Table 2, which summarise results obtained using tridentate ligands Ia–c and IIa–c, it is evident that the catalytic activity their

Switchable molecular tweezers: design and applications

• Pablo Msellem,
• Maksym Dekthiarenko,
• Nihal Hadj Seyd and
• Guillaume Vives

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 504–539, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.45

• tweezers 16 were then synthetized by Vives and co-workers using a 6,6”-substituted terpyridine this time bearing zinc(II)–salphen complexes [47]. The catalytic activity was evaluated in an acetyl transfer reaction between pyridinemethanol derivatives and anhydrides. For the ortho derivative, a rate