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

• favourable accommodation of a wider C–C(F2)–C angle within the cyclic product 11. Another illustration of the geometric perturbation caused by the wider C–C(F2)–C angle comes from the stearic acids 12 and 13 (Figure 3); the gem-difluorinated analogue 13 has substantially greater conformational disorder

• interruption of the fluorine pattern means that the C–F dipoles no longer all cancel each other out, and this results in a very high calculated molecular dipole (μ = 7.15 D). Having concluded our survey of linear alkanes, we will now focus on cyclic systems [48]. When fluorine is introduced into a small

• pendant aryl moiety, is better for target-binding and hence 41 is a ≈10-fold more potent inhibitor of BACE-1 than 40. Several further examples of cyclic ethers will be examined in section 5 (sugars). The anomeric effect applies in acyclic ethers, too. Consider the non-fluorinated scaffold, Ph–O–CH3 (42

Entry to 2-aminoprolines via electrochemical decarboxylative amidation of N‑acetylamino malonic acid monoesters

• Olesja Koleda,
• Janis Sadauskis,
• Darja Antonenko,
• Edvards Janis Treijs,
• Raivis Davis Steberis and
• Edgars Suna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 630–638, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.50

• cyclic amino acids are common structural motifs in the design of small-molecule drugs and peptidomimetics [1]. For example, the clinically used anesthetics carfentanil (1) and remifentanil (2), the FDA-approved antipruritic medication defelikefalin (3), and the arginase inhibitor 4 [2] possess cyclic α,α

• -disubstituted piperidine-containing amino acid subunits. Likewise, a cyano-substituted cyclic aminal is a core structural unit of the fibroblast activation protein inhibitor 5 [3] (Figure 1). The widespread use of non-proteinogenic cyclic amino acids in drug discovery justifies both the design of new analogs

• feature at Ep = 1.78 V vs Ag/Ag+ (100 mV/s scan rate; see Figure 3A), and the electrolysis of pyrrolidine 6a under the optimized anodic decarboxylative cyclization conditions (entry 8, Table 1) afforded cyclic hemiaminal 12a (33% NMR yield), whose structure was proved by NMR experiments (Figure 3B). The

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

• -donating or electron-withdrawing groups, work well under these conditions. However, the amine component does not react when primary or aromatic secondary amines are used. It works very well with cyclic or acyclic aliphatic secondary amines, such as piperidine or dibutylamine. In all cases, the yields are

• formation of an aminal intermediate E or the enamine derivative when they tried to obtain it from the reaction of CH2Cl2 and diethylamine in the absence of alkyne under suitable conditions (CuCl, 5 mol %, DBU 1 equiv, CH3CN, 60 °C) [62]. Only in some cases can the reaction of CH2Cl2 and certain cyclic

Vinylogous functionalization of 4-alkylidene-5-aminopyrazoles with methyl trifluoropyruvates

• Judit Hostalet-Romero,
• Laura Carceller-Ferrer,
• Gonzalo Blay,
• Amparo Sanz-Marco,
• José R. Pedro and
• Carlos Vila

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 533–540, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.41

• starting materials to study the vinylogous functionalization with alkyl trifluoropyruvates. The synthesis of compounds 3 was accomplished by the reaction of cyclic ketones 1 and 5-aminopyrazoles 2 in the presence of acetic acid (Scheme 1) [30][31]. Cyclohexenones 1a–c provided the corresponding products

• 3aa–ca in good yields (47–69%). On the other hand, the reaction with tetrahydro-4H-pyran-4-one (1d) occurred with a significant decrease in yield, dropping to 11%. The yield is also affected by the number of carbon atoms of the starting cyclic ketone 1. In the case of structure 3ea, which involves 2

• -indanone, the decrease in yield is not very pronounced. However, when cyclopentanone (1f) or cycloheptanone (1g) are used, the yields dropped significantly to 5% and 6%, respectively. Next, maintaining cyclohexanone as a cyclic ketone, a series of compounds 3 were synthesized by modifying the 5

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

• ongoing challenge. Cryptophycins are a class of cyclic depsipeptides renowned for their high cytotoxicity in the picomolar range often combined with efficacy against multidrug-resistant tumour cell lines. However, cryptophycins failed as stand-alone drugs in cancer treatment, and their naturally occurring

• 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 N-acetyl diazocine derivatives via cross-coupling reaction

• Thomas Brandt,
• Pascal Lentes,
• Jeremy Rudtke,
• Michael Hösgen,
• Christian Näther and
• Rainer Herges

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 490–499, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.36

• spectra [1]. Moreover, the ethylene bridge creates a cyclic 8-membered core, inverting the thermodynamically stability in favor of the Z boat conformation compared to parent azobenzene, which has a stable E configuration [1][2][3][4]. Preceding studies including azobenzene-based photopharmacophores showed

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

• by displacement of the mesyl group to give a six-membered cyclic carbamate, a reactivity that has been described earlier [34]. Thus, care was taken to quickly isolate compound 14 and use it immediately in the next step. Deblocking of the secondary amine by treatment with trifluoroacetic acid afforded

Electrochemical synthesis of cyclic biaryl λ³-bromanes from 2,2’-dibromobiphenyls

• Andrejs Savkins and
• Igors Sokolovs

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 451–457, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.32

• renders them particularly suitable for the generation of arynes for subsequent use in a wide range of synthetic applications. The common approach to generate cyclic biaryl λ3-bromanes is based on thermal decomposition of hazardous diazonium salts. Herein, we disclose a mild and straightforward approach to

• diarylbromonium species by direct anodic oxidation of 2,2'-dibromo-1,1'-biphenyl. The electrochemical method provides access to a range of symmetrically and non-symmetrically substituted cyclic biaryl λ3-bromanes in moderate yields. Keywords: anodic oxidation; cyclic biaryl λ3-bromane; cyclic voltammetry

• ; electrochemistry; hypervalent bromine; Introduction Chemistry of hypervalent bromine(III) species has experienced rapid advancements during the recent years [1][2]. The remarkable nucleofugality of aryl bromides in hypervalent bromine(III) compounds has been exploited in the generation of arynes from cyclic

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

• substrate reactivity [64]. Cyclodextrins, cucurbiturils, cavitands, and calixarenes are representative [64][65][66][67][68][69][70], and typical features of these macrocycles are high symmetry and a hydrophobic cavity with polar edge groups. They tend to be synthesized as covalent cyclic oligomers in

The effect of neighbouring group participation and possible long range remote group participation in O-glycosylation

• Rituparna Das and
• Balaram Mukhopadhyay

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 369–406, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.27

• glycoside in moderate 43% yield. However, a five-membered cyclic acetal 88 as the side product was obtained which led to the determination of the plausible mechanism involving participation of the alkoxymethyl group of the C-2 position (Scheme 15). Path A in Scheme 15 designates the expected participating

• route for 1,2-trans glycoside synthesis. Path B designates the route for the formation of the cyclic ester as the side product which is only possible if the mechanism proceeds through the formation of an oxocarbenium intermediate 86. This has been effectively shown by Kulkarni and co-workers who used a

Oxidation of [3]naphthylenes to cations and dications converts local paratropicity into global diatropicity

• Abel Cárdenas,
• Zexin Jin,
• Yong Ni,
• Jishan Wu,
• Yan Xia,
• Francisco Javier Ramírez and
• Juan Casado

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 277–285, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.20

• stabilization of such redox states. Results and Discussion Electrochemistry Figure 2 shows the electrochemical cyclic voltammograms of 1 and 2, in which two reversible oxidation processes can be observed. By considering the half-wave potential values obtained from the cyclic voltammograms, two one-electron

• 1600–1550 cm−1 triplet. This result is fully compatible with the presence of the two rather overlapped (i.e., with similar energies) one-electron oxidations in the cyclic voltammetry of 2. The spectral resemblances for 2•+ and 22+ might also indicate that the positive charge is mainly gathered by the

• Electrochemistry Cyclic voltammetry experiments were conducted with a three-electrode geometry operating with a glassy carbon as the working electrode. A Pt-coil counter electrode. and an Ag wire, as the pseudo-reference, were used. Potential values are given with respect to the ferrocene/ferrocenium (Fc/Fc

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 of alkyne 8, THIQ segment 9, and benzaldehyde would enable convergent assembly of the building blocks to produce 10 [43][44][45][46]. Removal of the cyclic acetal in 10 followed by Strecker-type conversion leading to an α-amino nitrile would enable tandem intramolecular cyclization with phenol to

• reaction involves an in situ generation of the iminium cation A followed by isomerization to the thermodynamically more stable iminium cation B. Subsequent nucleophilic attack of a copper acetylide enabled regioselective C–C bond formation at the C11 position. After removal of the cyclic acetal, the

Hydrogen-bonded macrocycle-mediated dimerization for orthogonal supramolecular polymerization

• Wentao Yu,
• Zhiyao Yang,
• Chengkan Yu,
• Xiaowei Li and
• Lihua Yuan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 179–188, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.10

• aromatic amide macrocycles [36][37][38][39][40][41][42], a class of cyclic compounds comprising a number of aromatic residues with consecutive intramolecular hydrogen bonds and amide linkages, stand out as versatile host molecules as their cavity size, peripheral side chains, and recognition sites are

Recent advances in electrochemical copper catalysis for modern organic synthesis

• Yemin Kim and
• Won Jun Jang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 155–178, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.9

• desired annulation products. Moreover, the same products were generated using alkynyl carboxylic acids instead of terminal alkynes via decarboxylative C–H alkynylation and annulation. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) studies exhibited an oxidative current at 0.95 V vs SCE in the presence of the Cu(II) salt, base

• asymmetric C(sp3)–H alkynylation of tertiary cyclic amines by merging Cu(II)/TEMPO catalysis with electrochemistry to yield chiral C1-alkynylated tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs) (Figure 5) [50]. As a co-catalytic redox mediator, TEMPO plays an essential role in the formation of iminium intermediate 15 and in

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

• Venezian 21, 20133, Milano, Italy 10.3762/bjoc.21.7 Abstract This review reports the achievements in copper(II) triflate-catalyzed processes concerning the multicomponent reactions, applied to the synthesis of acyclic and cyclic compounds. In particular, for the heteropolycyclic systems mechanistic

• . The Mannich reaction with aromatic aldehydes and cyclic amines was performed efficiently on 2-naphthol, by using SiO2-supported copper triflate under solvent-free conditions, without an additional co-catalyst or additive (Scheme 3) [17]. The treatment of stoichiometric amounts of arylaldehydes

• realized with high diastereo- and enantioselectivities (Scheme 12) [25]. Providing cyclic compounds For more than a century, Biginelli's reaction has been known as an effective tool for the construction of dihydropyrimidines through a three-component process by condensation in an acidic medium of an

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

Synthesis, structure and π-expansion of tris(4,5-dehydro-2,3:6,7-dibenzotropone)

• Yongming Xiong,
• Xue Lin Ma,
• Shilong Su and
• Qian Miao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1–7, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.1

• in 3, which consume the energy of the excited state. Figure 4 shows the UV–vis absorption spectrum of 3 in cyclohexane with the absorption edge at 561 nm and its emission spectrum with a peak at 580 nm. In the test windows of cyclic voltammetry (Supporting Information File 1, Figure S1), 3 exhibits

Reactivity of hypervalent iodine(III) reagents bearing a benzylamine with sulfenate salts

• Beatriz Dedeiras,
• Catarina S. Caldeira,
• José C. Cunha,
• Clara S. B. Gomes and
• M. Manuel B. Marques

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3281–3289, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.272

• as strong oxidizing agents [1], during the last decades HIRs have been investigated as group-transfer reagents, useful in several bond-forming reactions, such as in C–C, C–N, and C–O [2][3][4][5]. The benziodoxol(on)e family, cyclic iodine(III) reagents, stands out for their thermal stability and

• have been reported [12]. These reagents have proven effective in delivering azides (I) [13], amides (II) [14], aliphatic cyclic amines (III) [15], phthalimidates (IV) [16], imines (V) [17], sulfoximides (VI) [18], carbazoles (VII) [19], secondary (VIII) [4] and primary (IX) [20] amines (Figure 1). The

• benziodoxol(on)es can be found in the literature, including reagents featuring cyclic aliphatic amine moieties (III) [15], phthalimidates (IV) [16], and carbazoles (VII) [19]. Minakata and co-workers proposed an innovative approach for transferring imine groups using iodane-containing (diarylmethylene)amino

Giese-type alkylation of dehydroalanine derivatives via silane-mediated alkyl bromide activation

• Perry van der Heide,
• Michele Retini,
• Fabiola Fanini,
• Giovanni Piersanti,
• Francesco Secci,
• Daniele Mazzarella,
• Timothy Noël and
• Alberto Luridiana

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3274–3280, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.271

• obtained for compound 13 with a longer chain length than for 12. Similarly, the secondary cyclic alkyl substrates used in compound 18 (60%) and 3 (56%) worked well for this reaction. Besides, oxygen-containing compounds 14 and 15 were obtained in yields of 51% and 67% and medicinally interesting groups

• like the azetidine in compound 16 (56%) and the piperidine in compound 17 (67%) also resulted in good yields. Concerning tertiary alkyl substrates, acyclic alkyl substrates used in compound 19 (68%) and 20 (53%) as well as cyclic alkyl substrates like bromomethylcyclohexane used in compound 21 (61

• tertiary amide on the same position. Alternatively, the use of a double Boc-protected Dha resulted in a rather low yield of compound 25 (32%), while varying one Boc-protecting group with a Cbz-protecting group increased the yield substantially to 86% for compound 26. In addition, the use of a cyclic, N-Cbz

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

• enables the synthesis of structurally distinct cyclic derivatives which are difficult to access by other methodologies, using an efficient and atom-economical path from simple precursors. In recent years several asymmetric catalytic cyclization strategies have been accomplished for the construction of N

• cyclic derivatives. Conjugated imines are usually synthesized from the corresponding carbonyl precursors by reaction with a sulfonamide in the presence of Lewis acids and a dehydrating agent such as molecular sieves [3]. Also, recently a palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenation of aliphatic imines was

• , respectively. Additionally, the most common cyclic α,β-unsaturated imines involve benzofuran or saccharin-derived azadienes (Figure 1). Cycloaddition reactions, especially Diels–Alder reactions, have attracted a lot of attention since their discovery as one of the most powerful methodologies for the

Synthesis of extended fluorinated tripeptides based on the tetrahydropyridazine scaffold

• Thierry Milcent,
• Pascal Retailleau,
• Benoit Crousse and
• Sandrine Ongeri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3174–3181, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.262

• synthesis of tripeptides incorporating new fluorinated heterocyclic hydrazino acids, based on the tetrahydropyridazine scaffold is described. Starting from simple fluorinated hydrazones, these non-proteinogenic cyclic β-amino acids were easily prepared by a zinc-catalyzed aza-Barbier reaction followed by an

• stabilizes their secondary structure and their metabolic stability, which is useful for numerous applications [3][4][5]. Indeed, the cyclic structure considerably reduces the number of possible rotational conformers, allowing a rational control of the 3D conformational space. Among these cyclic structures

• tetrahydropyridazine scaffold is also found in numerous natural linear or cyclic peptides such as svetamycins or antrimycins as dehydropiperazic acid (Figure 2) [10]. Whereas many publications have been devoted to the synthesis and structure of piperazic acid derivatives (dehydro, chloro, hydroxy, …) [11][12], nothing

Multicomponent reactions driving the discovery and optimization of agents targeting central nervous system pathologies

• Lucía Campos-Prieto,
• Aitor García-Rey,
• Eddy Sotelo and
• Ana Mallo-Abreu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3151–3173, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.261

• , and either sodium hydroxide or sodium hydrogen sulfide to obtain a cyclic imine. Subsequently, the U-3CR is performed, where the cyclic imine reacts with an electron-deficient 2-fluorobenzoic acid and an isocyanide to yield a bisamide. Then, the bisamide undergoes an intramolecular SNAr reaction to

Surprising acidity for the methylene of 1,3-indenocorannulenes?

• Shi Liu,
• Märt Lõkov,
• Sofja Tshepelevitsh,
• Ivo Leito,
• Kim K. Baldridge and
• Jay S. Siegel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3144–3150, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.260

• conformationally planar-locked 2,3-diphenylindene (pKa 17.7 in DMSO [17]. The CL perspective also allows one to create graphs with points representing the aromatic elements, such as, benzene, Cp anion, pyrrole, etc. (Scheme 2, top). Triphenylene is a simple cyclic graph of three benzene elements and their direct

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

• structures. HVI reagents are characterized by their diverse reactivity as oxidants and electrophilic reagents. In addition, they are inexpensive, non-toxic and considered to be environmentally friendly. An important application of HVI reagents is the synthesis of halogenated cyclic compounds, in particular

• ; heterocycles; hypervalent iodine; oxidation; Introduction Halogenated carbocyclic and heterocyclic compounds are present in many active pharmaceutical ingredients [1][2]. The intramolecular halocyclisation of alkenes mediated by HVI(III) reagents allow access to a range of halogenated cyclic scaffolds in a

• cost effective and selective, one-pot transformation. Pharmaceutical uses for bio-active cyclic molecules accessible by I(III) reagents are plentiful; anticancer drugs can be formed from the basis of pyrrolo[2,3-b]indoles 1 [3][4], 2-oxazolines 2 [5][6], dihydrofuran 3 [7][8], and spirocyclic scaffolds

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

• two macrocycles as metal-free catalysts. Keywords: calix[4]pyrroles; electrocatalysis; free-base porphyrins; organocatalysis; photocatalysis; tetrapyrrolic macrocycles; Introduction Tetrapyrrolic macrocycles are a class of cyclic compounds that contain four pyrrolic units in their ring. Examples of

• /16) aldol products with up to 82% yield in a 70:30 diastereoisomeric ratio. A decade after, Ema, Maeda and co-workers investigated using of calix[4]pyrrole macrocyclic organocatalysts for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates 21 from epoxides 20 (1,2-epoxyhexane) and CO2 [39]. For this purpose, they

• catalysis of Diels–Alder reaction in aqueous environment catalyzed by TPPS3 53 supramolecular aggregates [67]. The Diels–Alder reaction between cinnamaldehyde (55) and cyclopentadiene (56) proceeds via iminium activation by the zwitterionic hetero-aggregates derived from TPPS3 molecules 53 and a cyclic