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

• ]. These oxetanone precursors are generated from easily accessible alkynylphosphonates 124 via gold-mediated alkyne oxidation by pyridine N-oxide 125 followed by a formal O–H-insertion of the resulting metallacarbene intermediate 128. The optimised procedure requires 5 mol % loadings of the gold catalyst

• synthetic route to the repertoire which proceeds through a gold-catalysed oxidation of propargyl alcohol (131) [82]. Scheme 34 also shows selected transformations from the publications by Carreira et al. to provide a brief insight into what oxetane building blocks can be prepared from 3-oxetanone: these

Recent advances and future challenges in the bottom-up synthesis of azulene-embedded nanographenes

• Bartłomiej Pigulski

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1272–1305, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.99

• dimerization of alkynes, followed by the expansion of a phenyl ring leading to the formation of an azulene moiety, was first reported over half a century ago. These reactions can be carried out using various catalytic systems, including sulfenyl chloride/AlCl3 [50], palladium catalysts [51] or gold catalysts

Gold extraction at the molecular level using α- and β-cyclodextrins

• Susana Santos Braga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1116–1125, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.89

• . Practical applications of this ability are directed to the selective isolation of gold from a variety of sources, spanning from gold-rich mining ores and tailings/mining wastes to gold-bearing metal scraps obtained from disposed electronic devices. Moreover, it describes the development of a method based on

• spontaneous complex formation between α-CD and tetrabromoaurate and its current status of use in a few mining sites in the United States. Keywords: bromoaurate; cyanoaurate; cyclodextrin inclusion; self-assembly; supramolecular interactions; Introduction Gold has allured and captivated humankind ever since

• its discovery, mostly because of its glittery metallic yellow color and its ability to remain untarnished even after exposure to extremely aggressive conditions. Gold is able to keep its shine for centuries, having been deemed as the most noble of metals [1]. Present in human life since early

Recent advances in synthetic approaches for bioactive cinnamic acid derivatives

• Betty A. Kustiana,
• Galuh Widiyarti and
• Teni Ernawati

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1031–1086, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.85

• . Furthermore, Sato and co-workers (2019) employed an air-stable Ni nanoparticle supported on sulfur-modified gold (SANi) to convert alkynes to the corresponding cinnamic acids 285–287 (Scheme 70B) [120]. In addition, the SANi catalyst could be recycled without significant loss of activity. By generating CO in

Recent total synthesis of natural products leveraging a strategy of enamide cyclization

• Chun-Yu Mi,
• Jia-Yuan Zhai and
• Xiao-Ming Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 999–1009, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.81

• the α-position of enamide to be an active cyclization site, with the alkyne tether acting as the nucleophile. Since it is well-established that alkynes, when activated by transition metals such as gold or platinum, can also function as electrophiles, modulating the reactivity of the decahydroquinoline

• was utilized to transform enamine 18 and propargyl ester 19 into 1-azaspiro[4.4]nonane 20 with high diastereoselectivity. Notably, the combination of an N-heterocyclic carbene gold catalyst and a silver salt AgSbF6 was found to be essential in guaranteeing the reactivity of the alkyne partner

• , probably due to the formation of a more acidic cationic gold complex. Following this annulation, reduction of the amide in 20, catalytic hydrogenation of the alkene and the N-benzyl group, and subsequent nitrogen acylation yielded chloride 21 in a 42% total yield, setting the stage for the Witkop

On the photoluminescence in triarylmethyl-centered mono-, di-, and multiradicals

• Daniel Straub,
• Markus Gross,
• Mona E. Arnold,
• Julia Zolg and
• Alexander J. C. Kuehne

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 964–998, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.80

• character of the fluorine substituent. When gold atoms are coordinated to the pyridine nitrogen, a ϕ as high as 8% has been observed [57]. The reason for this increase in ϕ to 8% for Au-Cl2PyBTM and 20% for Au-F2PyBTM is unknown, but the increase in the presence of a heavy atom might point at an improved

Silver(I) triflate-catalyzed post-Ugi synthesis of pyrazolodiazepines

• Muhammad Hasan,
• Anatoly A. Peshkov,
• Syed Anis Ali Shah,
• Andrey Belyaev,
• Chang-Keun Lim,
• Shunyi Wang and
• Vsevolod A. Peshkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 915–925, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.74

• ][44] and hydroalkoxylations [45]. In 2013, Van der Eycken and co-workers described an intramolecular cationic gold-catalyzed post-Ugi heteroannulation of imidazoles with activated alkynes for the diversity-oriented synthesis of imidazo[1,4]diazepines 13 from Ugi-derived propargylamides 12 (Scheme 1c

• ) [46]. In 2019, Li, Yang, Van der Eycken and co-workers reported a modification of this strategy relying on thermal activation instead of cationic gold catalysis [47]. The approach worked particularly well with substrates featuring terminal alkynes. Inspired by these developments and taking into

Recent advances in controllable/divergent synthesis

• Jilei Cao,
• Leiyang Bai and
• Xuefeng Jiang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 890–914, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.73

• in steering catalytic selectivity. In 2016, the Jiang group achieved regioselective control in the gold-catalyzed intramolecular hydroarylation of alkynes by modulating the electronic and steric effects of ligands (Scheme 2) [20]. Mechanistically, the electron-deficient phosphite ligand L1 and the

• weakly coordinating OTf− anion synergistically enhanced the electrophilicity of the gold center, enabling coordination with the amide group to form a three-coordinate Au(I)–π-alkyne intermediate Int-12. The umbrella-shaped steric shielding provided by the ligand-stabilized intermediate Int-9, followed by

• tactics in chemical synthesis. Ligand-controlled regiodivergent C1 insertion into arynes [19]. Ligand effect in homogenous gold catalysis enabling regiodivergent π-bond-activated cyclization [20]. Ligand-controlled palladium(II)-catalyzed regiodivergent carbonylation of alkynes [21]. Catalyst-controlled

Light-enabled intramolecular [2 + 2] cycloaddition via photoactivation of simple alkenylboronic esters

• Lewis McGhie,
• Hannah M. Kortman,
• Jenna Rumpf,
• Peter H. Seeberger and
• John J. Molloy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 854–863, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.69

• strategies for cyclobutyl scaffolds [53][54][55], products 6 and 7 could be synthesized via mild conditions [68]. Inspired by recent advances by Nolan and co-workers demonstrating the synthetic power of gold catalysts in EnT catalysis [31][69][70][71][72], we probed the reactivity of [Au(SIPr)(Cbz)] in our

• achieved. It is pertinent to note the enhanced levels of diastereoselectivity obtained for this reaction further underscore the potential of gold catalysts for future EnT reactions. Control reactions indicate selective activation of the α,β-unsaturated ester (see Supporting Information File 1 for full

Formaldehyde surrogates in multicomponent reactions

• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Bernhard Westermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 564–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.45

• the most used one. This is usually done at a load of 5 mol % in CH3CN as solvent and CH2Cl2 as a C1 synthon, under moderate reaction conditions (60 °C). Consequently, this synthetic strategy is less dependent on temperature compared to AAA coupling [62]. Several reports also showed that gold (as AuCl3

• 27 and alkynes 28 (Scheme 21) [63]. In this case, the catalysis was accomplished by a gold(III) catalyst. In general, CH2Cl2 is preferentially chosen as the dihalomethane compound due to economic reasons and ease of access, but some reports also used CH2Br2 and CH2I2 with good results [62][66][67

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

• of side reactions. This latter advantage has been notably exploited in the case of ring-closing olefin metathesis reactions, where Weizmann et al. utilized the photothermal response of plasmons from gold nanoparticles to activate the catalyst [17]. This approach contrasts with the work of Rovis et al

Streamlined modular synthesis of saframycin substructure via copper-catalyzed three-component assembly and gold-promoted 6-endo cyclization

• Asahi Kanno,
• Ryo Tanifuji,
• Satoshi Yoshida,
• Sota Sato,
• Saori Maki-Yonekura,
• Kiyofumi Takaba,
• Jungmin Kang,
• Kensuke Tono,
• Koji Yonekura and
• Hiroki Oguri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 226–233, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.14

• coupling with gold(I)-mediated 6-endo cyclization streamlines the rapid and modular assembly of the substructure of bis-tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ) alkaloids. The design of the key synthetic intermediate bearing a 2,3-diaminobenzofuran moiety allows both gold(I)-mediated regiocontrolled 6-endo

• involvement of a fluorescent intermediate in the cascade synthetic process. Keywords: cascade reactions; copper-catalyzed three-component coupling; gold-mediated 6-endo hydroamination; tandem cyclizations; tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids; Introduction The bis-tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ) alkaloid family

• , followed by gold(I)-promoted 6-endo cyclization between the internal alkyne and 2,3-diaminobenzofuran moieties with spontaneous transformations into the left THIQ segment in 14. Results and Discussion As outlined in our modular synthetic approach (Scheme 1c), the copper(I)-catalyzed three-component

Hypervalent iodine-mediated intramolecular alkene halocyclisation

• Charu Bansal,
• Oliver Ruggles,
• Albert C. Rowett and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3113–3133, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.258

• instead proceeded with addition of dichloro(pyridine-2-carboxylato)gold(III) complex in combination with silver triflimide, AgNTf2. A range of β-fluoroazepanes 7 were successfully synthesised with high enantiomeric purity in good yields. A mechanism for the synthesis of β-fluorinated piperidines was

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

• ) Superposition of docked compounds 4a–e and 5e in a CYP51 ACb. aThe amino acid residues of the protein are colored green, compound 4e is colored gold and the haem is colored grey. The heterocyclic nitrogen of compound 5e appears to be orientated towards iron and is located 2.8 Å away from it, which may indicate

Synthesis of spiroindolenines through a one-pot multistep process mediated by visible light

• Francesco Gambuti,
• Jacopo Pizzorno,
• Chiara Lambruschini,
• Renata Riva and
• Lisa Moni

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2722–2731, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.230

• cyclization of the indole derivatives is the most popular (Scheme 1a). For instance, the efficient synthesis of spiro[indoline-3,2′-pyrrolidines] [8][9][10] or spiro-isoxazoles [11] through different dearomatization processes has been reported. Recently, Ramana and Dothe have proposed an elegant gold

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

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

• number of structural features, but the sample preparation required can lead to significant changes in the materials morphology. EM requires many preparative steps to allow structures to be imaged including the application of an ultrathin coating of carbon, gold, or platinum. These are applied to conduct

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

• pargyline and ethisterone (Scheme 43). 1.3.8 Au-assisted anodic oxidation. A gold-catalyzed C(sp3)–C(sp) coupling of diverse alkynes and arylhydrazines under mild electrochemical conditions with the dinuclear gold complex, bis(diphenylphosphino)methane digold(I) dichloride (dppm(AuCl)2) as catalyst and n

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

• . Finally, the potential as halogen-bonding activator was benchmarked in solution in the gold-catalyzed cyclization of a propargyl amide. Keywords: diaryliodonium; gold catalysis; halogen bonding; hypervalent iodine; non-covalent interactions; Introduction The compound class of diaryliodonium (DAI) salts

• abstractions, e.g. to activate gold chloride complexes [18][19]. Therefore, besides the development of new bidentate catalyst motifs, we were still interested in the optimization of these “simpler” derivatives. Thus, we designed a new catalyst motif [20] featuring an isoxazole ring, XB donor 7Z, and compared

• 7Br, which hints that also in solution stronger binding to Lewis bases and therefore higher activity as catalyst may be expected (compared to prototypic iodolium 1Z). As a benchmark for the halogen-bonding strength in solution, the activation of (PPh3)AuCl was chosen. The activated gold(I) complex was

Computational toolbox for the analysis of protein–glycan interactions

• Ferran Nieto-Fabregat,
• Maria Pia Lenza,
• Angela Marseglia,
• Cristina Di Carluccio,
• Antonio Molinaro,
• Alba Silipo and
• Roberta Marchetti

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2084–2107, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.180

• search space, can be done by comparing the target protein to related proteins or those co-crystallised with ligands [103] and manually superimposing the new ligand to the reference structure. Some payment software like Glide [116][117], GOLD [118] and Molecular Operating Environment (MOE) dock [119] can

• docking algorithms. Unlike other docking programs such as AutoDock, AutoDock Vina, DOCK, FlexX, Glide, and GOLD, which are primarily designed for small, rigid ligands, GlycanDock is specifically optimized to address the flexibility and complex structural features of glycans. The carbohydrate chains are

Solvent-dependent chemoselective synthesis of different isoquinolinones mediated by the hypervalent iodine(III) reagent PISA

• Ze-Nan Hu,
• Yan-Hui Wang,
• Jia-Bing Wu,
• Ze Chen,
• Dou Hong and
• Chi Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1914–1921, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.167

• metal reagents, including cobalt [10], copper [11], rhodium [12][13][14], palladium [15][16][17], silver [18], and gold [19] catalysts, have been reported. However, compared to the widespread use of metal catalysts, the synthesis of isoquinolinone scaffolds mediated by environmentally friendly

Photoswitchable glycoligands targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa LecA

• Yu Fan,
• Ahmed El Rhaz,
• Stéphane Maisonneuve,
• Emilie Gillon,
• Maha Fatthalla,
• Franck Le Bideau,
• Guillaume Laurent,
• Samir Messaoudi,
• Anne Imberty and
• Juan Xie

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1486–1496, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.132

• [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The group of Lindhorst has reported a series of mannosyl azobenzenes targeting E. coli lectin FimH, demonstrating the possibility to control the type 1 fimbriae-mediated bacterial adhesion to a self-assembled monolayer of mannosyl azobenzene on a gold surface [19][20

• with 10% H2SO4 in EtOH and heating about 30 s at 400–600 °C. Column chromatography purification was performed on CombiFlash® Rf+ and RediSep® RF or RF Gold normal phase silica columns (with UV detection at 254 and 350 nm for all azobenzene derivatives), or by flash column chromatography employing

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

• with trifluoroacetoacetate [17], the synthesis from enaminoketones [18] and the gold-catalysed cyclisation of propargylanilines [19]. Aside from its pharmaceutical significance quinoline compounds have been reported as strongly fluorescent with applications as electroluminescence materials [20][21][22

Structure–property relationships in dicyanopyrazinoquinoxalines and their hydrogen-bonding-capable dihydropyrazinoquinoxalinedione derivatives

• Tural N. Akhmedov,
• Ajeet Kumar,
• Daken J. Starkenburg,
• Kyle J. Chesney,
• Khalil A. Abboud,
• Novruz G. Akhmedov,
• Jiangeng Xue and
• Ronald K. Castellano

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1037–1052, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.92

• suspension was heated to 115 °C for 20 hours with vigorous stirring. After 20 hours, the reaction was cooled, and yellow-gold shimmering particles began to settle out. The mixture was filtered, and the resulting gold-colored solid was recrystallized from hot DMF to obtain pure compound 4a (0.12 g, 0.39 mmol

• ), and 1,4-dioxane (2 mL). The resulting orange suspension was heated at 110 °C for 48 hours. After completion, the tube was allowed to cool to room temperature and placed in a freezer overnight. Gold-colored crystals of 5a were collected by filtration and dried in vacuo (430 mg, 1.28 mmol, 74%). 1H NMR

Three-component N-alkenylation of azoles with alkynes and iodine(III) electrophile: synthesis of multisubstituted N-vinylazoles

• Jun Kikuchi,
• Roi Nakajima and
• Naohiko Yoshikai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 891–897, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.79

• agents, preferably with well-defined stereochemistry, is a nontrivial task. The addition of azoles to alkynes represents an alternative approach to N-vinylazoles. For example, Nolan and co-workers recently reported a gold-catalyzed addition of azoles to alkynes (hydroazolation; Scheme 1b) [10]. The gold

• catalysis encompassed various azoles such as pyrazole, indazole, and (benzo)triazole, exhibiting high Z-selectivity. In addition, Cao et al. reported a gold-catalyzed addition of 5-substituted tetrazoles to terminal alkynes [11]. Analogous hydroazolation reactions of alkynes have also been achieved under