Recent advances in total synthesis of illisimonin A

• Juan Huang and
• Ming Yang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2571–2583, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.199

• deprotection, afforded enal 42. To avoid the chemoselectivity issues in the subsequent allylic oxidation and radical cyclization steps, enal 42 was converted to 43 by reduction of the aldehyde and protection of the resultant diol with Ph2SiCl2. Allylic oxidation of 43 with 44 [37] afforded the enone in 22

Total syntheses of highly oxidative Ryania diterpenoids facilitated by innovations in synthetic strategies

• Zhi-Qi Cao,
• Jin-Bao Qiao and
• Yu-Ming Zhao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2553–2570, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.198

• , smoothly constructing the A ring to afford compound 14. Subsequent protection of the vicinal diol and aldehyde functionalities in 14 provides an intermediate that, after Baeyer–Villiger oxidation and subsequent tungsten-promoted reverse epoxidation, forms lactone 15. Ozonolysis of 15 cleaves the double

• , and introduction of an isopropenyl group afforded compound 75. Subsequent protection of the vicinal diol as a boronic ester and diastereoselective reduction of the C3 carbonyl group yielded compound 76. Esterification with acylating reagent 77 under basic conditions, followed by boronic ester removal

• . While its mechanism remains incompletely understood, this additive’s unique efficacy in such transformations is unprecedented. Subsequent steps involved hydroxylation of the double bond and the protection of the vicinal diol as a dimethyl ketal giving ester 100. Oxidative dehydrogenation, benzyl

Rapid access to the core of malayamycin A by intramolecular dipolar cycloaddition

• Yilin Liu,
• Yuchen Yang,
• Chen Yang,
• Sha-Hua Huang,
• Jian Jin and
• Ran Hong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2542–2547, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.196

• is secured from the commercial source. Results and Discussion Based on the known protocol [33], diacetone-ᴅ-allofuranose 8 was first introduced with a propargyl group (Scheme 2A). Upon treatment of AcOH to afford diol 9, oxidative cleavage with Shing’s protocol (NaIO4 on silica gel) [34] proceeded

• position. Therefore, dihydroxylation [37] readily converted alkene 11 to diol 12 as a mixture of inseparable isomers. Without purification, oxidative cleavage with NaIO4 resulted in a compound with strong UV absorption, which was eventually identified as enone 14 (Scheme 3). It is assumed that the

• from the use of crotyl bromide as a mixture of geometric isomers. After installation of the crotyl group, hydrolysis of the acetonide group and oxidative cleavage of diol 16, oxime 17 was prepared through the condensation of the aldehyde with hydroxylamine in overall 59% yield. Upon oxidation with

Transformation of the cyclohexane ring to the cyclopentane fragment of biologically active compounds

• Natalya Akhmetdinova,
• Ilgiz Biktagirov and
• Liliya Kh. Faizullina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2416–2446, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.185

• KMnO4 in EtOH at 0 °C afforded vicinal diol 20 with a yield of 58%. The periodate cleavage of the latter under the action of NaIO4 led to the formation of a labile dialdehyde, which was treated with t-BuOK in THF without isolation. As a result of intramolecular aldol condensation, accompanied by the

• with MeONa or t-BuOK as base led to the formation of diol 29 with a yield of 40%, which is interesting for the synthesis of angeloside (31) [23]. An alternative preparation of diol 29 involved ozonolysis of the double bond in dioxolane 26 at −78 °C in methanol, followed by reduction of the ozonide with

• (III) and iodine(III), and Wolff rearrangement. 2.1 Benzilic acid and semipinacol-type rearrangements The strategy of ring contraction using the benzilic acid-type rearrangement was used by Zhang et al. [38] for the asymmetric synthesis of 4β-acetoxyprobotryane-9β,15α-diol (52). This compound contains

Synthetic study toward vibralactone

• Liang Shi,
• Jiayi Song,
• Yiqing Li,
• Jia-Chen Li,
• Shuqi Li,
• Li Ren,
• Zhi-Yun Liu and
• Hong-Dong Hao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2376–2382, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.182

• 1,3-diol intermediate was transformed into acetonide 25 (Scheme 5). Subsequently, the desired five-membered ring was successfully constructed through the in situ-generated alkylidene carbene 26 followed by C–H insertion; herein lies a significant electronic effect influencing this crucial step. With

Recent advances in Norrish–Yang cyclization and dicarbonyl photoredox reactions for natural product synthesis

• Peng-Xi Luo,
• Jin-Xuan Yang,
• Shao-Min Fu and
• Bo Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2315–2333, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.177

• (C6F5)3B triggered a Meinwald rearrangement, generating aldehyde 66. Nucleophilic addition, oxidation of the resulting alcohol, and base-promoted epimerization at C6 of 67' delivered 67. Subsequent dihydroxylation of the alkene in 67 and protection of the resulting 1,2-diol as a cyclic carbonate

• southern furan moiety of 69. Finally, hydrolysis of the carbonate followed by oxidation of the resulting diol completed the Norrish–Yang cyclization precursor gracilisoid A (49). Irradiation of 49 under anaerobic conditions with a CFL, followed by treatment with silica gel, successfully generated a pair of

Insoluble methylene-bridged glycoluril dimers as sequestrants for dyes

• Suvenika Perera,
• Peter Y. Zavalij and
• Lyle Isaacs

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2302–2314, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.176

• -1,4-dione was reduced with Na2S2O4 to triphenylene-1,4-diol (3) which was immediately treated with MeI under basic conditions (NaOH, DMSO) to give the known 1,4-dimethoxytriphenylene (W2) in 31% yield [47]. We also selected commercially available W3 and W4 to prepare comparators G2W3 and G2W4 to

C2 to C6 biobased carbonyl platforms for fine chemistry

• Jingjing Jiang,
• Muhammad Noman Haider Tariq,
• Florence Popowycz,
• Yanlong Gu and
• Yves Queneau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2103–2172, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.165

• -hydroxypropan-2-one with acylacetonitrile towards furan derivatives using a Sc(OTf)3 catalyst. C2-based bifunctional acetals, such as glycolaldehyde diethyl acetal, α-bromoacetaldehyde acetal, and 1,4-dithiane-2,5-diol also take part in the reaction as counterpart reagents. The well-known fungicide fenfuram was

• aqueous-phase reforming (APR) technology for the production of light hydrocarbons and hydrogen in a single step from aqueous organic phases [97] containing 1-hydroxypropan-2-one (acetol), ethanol, benzene-1,2-diol (catechol), acetic acid or mixtures thereof. The process was conducted over various Ni-based

• further converted to C4 bulk chemicals such as 2,3-butanediol and butene (Scheme 27). 1,4-Dihydroxybutan-2-one 1,4-Dihydroxybutan-2-one is a key intermediate for the synthesis of different polyols such as 2-aminobutane-1,4-diol. Ma and co-workers synthesized 1,4-dihydroxybutan-2-one by a benzaldehyde

The application of desymmetric enantioselective reduction of cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds in the total synthesis of terpenoid and alkaloid natural products

• Dong-Xing Tan and
• Fu-She Han

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2085–2102, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.164

• of 57 to phenolic intermediate followed by the construction of the B ring generated tricyclic core 59. Subsequently, dihydroxylation of the doubled bond in the central six-membered ring using OsO4/NMO gave diol, which was then subjected to acetylation of the two hydroxy groups and hydrogenation of C5

Bioinspired total syntheses of natural products: a personal adventure

• Zhengyi Qin,
• Yuting Yang,
• Nuran Yan,
• Xinyu Liang,
• Zhiyu Zhang,
• Yaxuan Duan,
• Huilin Li and
• Xuegong She

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2048–2061, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.160

• , derived from phenylthiol and geranyl bromide, coupled with chiral epoxide 6, prepared through Sharpless epoxidation and TBS protection of 2-methylprop-2-en-1-ol, under strong basic conditions to generate intermediate 7 to further reduce the sulfide moiety with sodium, furnishing diol 8 with the loss of

• of the monocerin-type natural products bearing a C10 alcohol. However, for other molecules with a C12 alcohol, it is unknown whether the C12 alcohol would bring challenges to the oxa-Michael addition or not. To investigate this, we used fragments 17–20 to access diol substrate 21, through Smith’s 1,3

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

• lipases for asymmetric acylation in total synthesis. In 1999, the Shishido group completed the asymmetric synthesis of (−)-xanthorrhizol, a bioactive bisabolene-type sesquiterpenoid, employing a PPL-catalyzed acylation as the key step (Scheme 2) [27]. The prochiral diol 2 was synthesized from compound 1

• into (−)-xanthorrhizol (4) in seven steps. Later in 2003, they further accomplished the synthesis of (+)-heliannuol D, a sesquiterpenoid isolated from sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. SH-222), starting from 4 [28]. A three-step sequence transformed 4 into diol 5. Treatment of 5 with Pd(OAc)2 and

• extended this strategy to other helianane-type sesquiterpenes. In 2003, they completed the enantioselective total synthesis of (−)-heliannuol A, another allelochemical sesquiterpenoid from Helianthus annuus L. SH-222 (Scheme 3a) [29]. The aryl iodide 9 was transformed into prochiral diol 10 in two steps

Chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis of helically chiral, planarly chiral and inherently chiral molecules

• Wei Liu and
• Xiaoyu Yang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1864–1889, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.145

• framework of the diol precursors, predominantly axially chiral structures such as BINOL, H8-BINOL, SPINOL and VAPOL scaffolds, which are widely used in the development of CPA catalysts. Furthermore, the ortho-aryl substitutions of the CPA catalyst can efficiently modulate the stereochemical and electronic

Research progress on calixarene/pillararene-based controlled drug release systems

• Liu-Huan Yi,
• Jian Qin,
• Si-Ran Lu,
• Liu-Pan Yang,
• Li-Li Wang and
• Huan Yao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1757–1785, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.139

3,3'-Linked BINOL macrocycles: optimized synthesis of crown ethers featuring one or two BINOL units

• Somayyeh Kheirjou,
• Jan Riebe,
• Maike Thiele,
• Christoph Wölper and
• Jochen Niemeyer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1719–1729, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.134

• enantioselective molecular recognition. Different chiral backbones were used for the construction of such chiral crown ethers, especially chiral 1,2-diols such as tartaric acid [5][6][7][8], propane-1,2-diol [9][10][11][12][13], cyclohexane-1,2-diol [14], carbohydrates [15], 1,1'-binapthyl-2,2'-diol (BINOL) [16

• macrocyclic crown ethers that are attached at the 3,3'-positions via additional phenylene spacers (see Figure 1e) [35][44][45]. Macrocycles M1b with a single BINOL unit were generated from the corresponding diol 2 by attachment of allylated linkers, followed by ring-closing metathesis [46][47][48][49][50

• not suitable in our hands. Therefore, we turned our attention towards the two-fold Williamson reaction (see Figure 3b). First, we employed the tetramethyl-substituted diol Me-2, which gives access to the same macrocyles Me-M15/6/7/8 which we could only generate in low yields via two-fold Suzuki

Approaches to stereoselective 1,1'-glycosylation

• Daniele Zucchetta and
• Alla Zamyatina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1700–1718, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.133

• the orthogonally protected diol acceptor 36, proved to deliver optimal stereoselectivity and the highest yields in the reaction promoted by bistrifluoromethylated tricyclic borinic acid 40, affording β,α-1,1'-linked disaccharides 37 [63] and 39 [62], respectively, in 86% yield (Scheme 4). The nature

• that its sufficient acidity is key to the success of the reaction. Using the 2N-Troc-protected GlcN phosphite 44 as the donor and the 4,6-O-benzylidene acetal-protected 1,2-diol 45 as the acceptor afforded the β,α-disaccharide 46 with high stereoselectivity under borinic acid catalysis [62]. In

• -derived 1,2-diol acceptor 113 in the presence of a diarylborinic acid catalyst 114, resulting in the formation of the βGlc(1↔1)βMan product 115 (Scheme 9). Similarly, the β,β-linked disaccharide 116 was synthesized using the same orthogonally protected 1,2-diol acceptor 113 and the tetrabenzylated GalN

Structural analysis of stereoselective galactose pyruvylation toward the synthesis of bacterial capsular polysaccharides

• Tsun-Yi Chiang,
• Mei-Huei Lin,
• Chun-Wei Chang,
• Jinq-Chyi Lee and
• Cheng-Chung Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1671–1677, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.131

• greater number of compounds compared to the use of methyl pyruvate. According to the second law of thermodynamics, the enhanced pyruvylation efficacy can be attributed to an entropy-driven effect, wherein a diol reacted with 1.0 equivalent of 2,2-dimethoxypropanoate to produce 2.0 equivalents of methanol

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

• transfer. In the second protocol, the β-lactone intermediates 7 are reduced to a diol and a subsequent Williamson etherification affords the oxetanes. Since both protocols consist of two steps and give only moderate yields, the overall oxetane yield and synthetic efficiency are rather low. In 2019, Marini

Synthetic approach to borrelidin fragments: focus on key intermediates

• Yudhi Dwi Kurniawan,
• Zetryana Puteri Tachrim,
• Teni Ernawati,
• Faris Hermawan,
• Ima Nurasiyah and
• Muhammad Alfin Sulmantara

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1135–1160, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.91

• with vinyl acetate as the acylating agent, Amano lipase AK (AKL) was identified as the most effective biocatalyst for achieving selective acetylation, converting diol 28 to the monoacetate 37 in 91% yield with >99.4% de (by HPLC). The diacetate byproduct 39 was formed in a small amount (9%). A similar

• diol desymmetrization of ent-28 was best achieved with Amano lipase PS (PSL), yielding monoacetate ent-37 (de 99.6%, 93% yield) without the formation of diacetate ent-39. Compound 37 was tosylated using tosyl chloride in pyridine with the addition of DMAP and the resulting product was treated with

• reduced with LiAlH4 to remove the OTs group, and after silyl group removal, diol 32b was obtained in 92% yield. Protection of the primary alcohol as a tosyl ester and the secondary as a TBDMS ether afforded intermediate 32c (72%). This intermediate was then treated with sodium thiophenol in ethanol

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

• cyclopentane ring, dihydroxylation, and oxidation of the diol to a diketone, produced intermediate 25 in its enol form. From this common intermediate, regioselective etherification at the less hindered position formed an enol ether. Final reduction of both the amide and the ketone using alane completed the

A convergent synthetic approach to the tetracyclic core framework of khayanolide-type limonoids

• Zhiyang Zhang,
• Jialei Hu,
• Hanfeng Ding,
• Li Zhang and
• Peirong Rao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 926–934, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.75

• molecules could be synthesized from diol 9 through a late-stage modification involving adjustment of the oxidation state and regioselective acylation. The formation of 9 was envisioned to proceed via an intramolecular pinacol coupling [30][31] of [5,5,6,6]-tetracycle 10, which forges the A2 ring while

Dicarboxylate recognition based on ultracycle hosts through cooperative hydrogen bonding and anion–π interactions

• Wen-Hui Mi,
• Teng-Yu Huang,
• Xu-Dong Wang,
• Yu-Fei Ao,
• Qi-Qiang Wang and
• De-Xian Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 884–889, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.72

• [29][31]. A one-pot reaction of submacrocycle 1a and 2-(benzyloxy)benzene-1,3-diol (2a) in the presence of 8.0 equivalents of CsF yielded the ultracycle precursor compounds. Three reorganized products B4a, B5a, and B6a with different ring sizes were isolated. As previously observed, the structural

Cryptophycin unit B analogues

• Thomas Schachtsiek,
• Jona Voss,
• Maren Hamsen,
• Beate Neumann,
• Hans-Georg Stammler and
• Norbert Sewald

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 526–532, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.40

• acidolysis was followed by macrolactamisation to obtain diol 24, albeit in poor yield of 11%. LC–MS analyses revealed that the low yield cannot be attributed to either incomplete acidolysis or incomplete conversion of the deprotected seco-cryptophycin during macrolactamisation. Rather, LC–MS analyses

• indicate the major presence of a fully deprotected and trifluoroacetylated seco-cryptophycin, most likely a TFA ester of one of the free hydroxy groups, a finding which might reason the comparably low yields (21–25%) of structurally similar unit B analogues reported earlier [21]. Contrary, diol 25 was

• obtained through Grubbs metathesis and subsequent acetonide cleavage in a superior yield of 76%. The finalising steps to obtain epoxides 26 and 2 (Scheme 3) were a diol–epoxide transformation [11][19][32], including firstly the formation of a cyclic orthoester, secondly the formation of a bromohydrin

Synthesis of electrophile-tethered preQ₁ analogs for covalent attachment to preQ₁ RNA

• Laurin Flemmich and
• Ronald Micura

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 483–489, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.35

• 3b in almost quantitative yield. The bis(3-bromopropyl)-modified ligand 3c was generated by heating preQ1 together with bis(3-hydroxypropyl)amine. It is noteworthy that the amine exchange reaction is thought to proceed via a purine methide intermediate [11]. Subsequent treatment of the diol with

Photomechanochemistry: harnessing mechanical forces to enhance photochemical reactions

• Francesco Mele,
• Ana M. Constantin,
• Andrea Porcheddu,
• Raimondo Maggi,
• Giovanni Maestri,
• Nicola Della Ca’ and
• Luca Capaldo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 458–472, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.33

• shaking a 1:1 mixture of chalcone (4.1) and 1,1,6,6-tetraphenylhexa-2,4-diyne-1,6-diol (4.2) with a test-tube shaker under irradiation with a high-pressure Hg lamp, the [2 + 2] syn-head-to-tail dimer product 4.3 was obtained selectively in 80% yield after 10 h (Scheme 4) [66]. In detail, 4.2 works as a

Synthesis of new condensed naphthoquinone, pyran and pyrimidine furancarboxylates

• Kirill A. Gomonov,
• Vasilii V. Pelipko,
• Igor A. Litvinov,
• Ilya A. Pilipenko,
• Anna M. Stepanova,
• Nikolai A. Lapatin,
• Ruslan I. Baichurin and
• Sergei V. Makarenko

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 340–347, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.24

• furopyran, furocoumarin [9][10], and furopyrimidine series [11][12]. It is known that the main approaches to the synthesis of naphtho[2,3-b]furan-4,9-diones are reactions of hydroxynaphthalene-1,4-dione with ethane-1,2-diol [13], chloroacetaldehyde [14], ethenyl methyl sulfone [15], or ethenyl acetate [16