3-Aryl-2H-azirines as annulation reagents in the Ni(II)-catalyzed synthesis of 1H-benzo[4,5]thieno[3,2-b]pyrroles

• Julia I. Pavlenko,
• Pavel A. Sakharov,
• Anastasiya V. Agafonova,
• Derenik A. Isadzhanyan,
• Alexander F. Khlebnikov and
• Mikhail S. Novikov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1595–1602, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.123

• reaction, in which 2H-azirines act as the annulation reagent. Keywords: annulation; azirines; benzothiophenes; indoles; nickel catalysis; Introduction 2H-Azirines represent a valuable class of nitrogen heterocycles that are widely used as versatile building blocks in organic synthesis. In particular, the

• modified at the positions 1 and 2. The N-methylaza analog of the benzo[b]thiophene (N-methylindole) reacts similarly to provide the annulation product in moderate yield. The described reaction is the first example of a dealkoxycarbonylative annulation reaction using 2H-azirines as annulation reagent

General method for the synthesis of enaminones via photocatalysis

• Paula Pérez-Ramos,
• Raquel G. Soengas and
• Humberto Rodríguez-Solla

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1535–1543, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.116

• components of drug derivative formulations, present in more than 7,000 active pharmaceutical compounds [43], the possibility of introducing a pyridine ring into the enaminone structure could be useful for the development of new drug candidates. When pyrrolidine was used as amine reagent, the target enaminone

Calcium waste as a catalyst in the transesterification for demanding esters: scalability perspective

• Anton N. Potorochenko and
• Konstantin S. Rodygin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1520–1527, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.114

• the transesterification of 4a with methanol (2a). The detailed procedure and reagent loading are given in Supporting Information File 1 (section 2.7). After each reaction cycle, the catalyst was separated by centrifugation, then washed with methanol and hexane to remove organic impurities, dried at 80

Ambident reactivity of enolizable 5-mercapto-1H-tetrazoles in trapping reactions with in situ-generated thiocarbonyl S-methanides derived from sterically crowded cycloaliphatic thioketones

• Grzegorz Mlostoń,
• Małgorzata Celeda,
• Marcin Palusiak,
• Heinz Heimgartner,
• Marta Denel-Bobrowska and
• Agnieszka B. Olejniczak

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1508–1519, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.113

• thiocarbonyl S-methanides 1a and 1b, respectively, in situ generated at 45 °C in absence of any trapping reagent, were described in earlier publications [6][10][11][12][13][14][28]. In the present study, the thermal stability of the new dispiro-1,3,4-thiadiazolines 2c and 2d was tested in THF solution at a

• regioselectivity in high yields. Upon heating to 65 °C in toluene solution, in analogy to the well-known compounds 2a and 2b, they extruded N2 and the in situ-generated reactive thiocarbonyl S-methanides 1c and 1d, in absence of any trapping reagent, underwent 1,3-dipolar electrocyclization yielding the

• crowded thioketones 7b [28], as well as 7c,d derived from cyclobutanedione. The in situ generation of sterically crowded thiocarbonyl S-methanides 1c,d (via a 1,3-dipolar cycloreversion) in absence of any trapping reagent and their electrocyclization (ring closure) leading to thiiranes 8a,b. Reactions of

Heterologous biosynthesis of cotylenol and concise synthesis of fusicoccane diterpenoids

• Ye Yuan,
• Zhenhua Guan,
• Xue-Jie Zhang,
• Nanyu Yao,
• Wenling Yuan,
• Yonghui Zhang,
• Ying Ye and
• Zheng Xiang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1489–1495, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.111

• cotylenin A and cotylenol (Figure 3a). Oxidation of brassicicene I with Dess–Martin reagent afforded intermediate 9 in 92% yield. The tertiary hydroxy group of compound 9 was further protected with a TMS group to provide compound 10 in 90% yield, a key intermediate in the synthesis of cotylenol and

N-Salicyl-amino acid derivatives with antiparasitic activity from Pseudomonas sp. UIAU-6B

• Joy E. Rajakulendran,
• Emmanuel Tope Oluwabusola,
• Michela Cerone,
• Terry K. Smith,
• Olusoji O. Adebisi,
• Adefolalu Adedotun,
• Gagan Preet,
• Sylvia Soldatou,
• Hai Deng,
• Rainer Ebel and
• Marcel Jaspars

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1388–1396, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.103

• the biogenesis of this heterocyclisation leading to the pseudomonine biosynthesis [23]. The absolute configuration of the threonine residue in compounds 1 and 2 was assigned as ʟ, based on the derivatization of 1 and 2 hydrolysates with ʟ-FDAA, a Marfey’s reagent, followed by chromatographic profiling

High-pressure activation for the solvent- and catalyst-free syntheses of heterocycles, pharmaceuticals and esters

• Kelsey Plasse,
• Valerie Wright,
• Guoshu Xie,
• R. Bernadett Vlocskó,
• Alexander Lazarev and
• Béla Török

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1374–1387, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.102

• still offered a reasonable increase in rates and thus, in yields. In addition to the synthetic advantages, the benefits HHP offers can also translate to green chemistry. The use of HHP extends the scope of solvent-, reagent- and catalyst-free reactions that significantly reduce workup and waste

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

• , the synthesis starts with the preparation of a reactive amine species 170 which is then reacted with a Grignard or, in case of ester-containing substrates, with an organozinc reagent. Because this method involves only two simple steps and is not limited to aryl groups, it provides a more rapid access

• that it likely proceeds through a p-quinone methide intermediate 213. The authors also demonstrated on two selected examples (214) that the products could be further derivatised to 3-substituted benzofurans 215 and benzindoles 216 with a hypervalent iodine reagent. In 2022, Bull et al. disclosed a

Recent advances in amidyl radical-mediated photocatalytic direct intermolecular hydrogen atom transfer

• Hao-Sen Wang,
• Lin Li,
• Xin Chen,
• Jian-Li Wu,
• Kai Sun,
• Xiao-Lan Chen,
• Ling-Bo Qu and
• Bing Yu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1306–1323, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.100

• (Figure 1c) [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], serve as key species for the HAT process. These HR were generated from different HAT reagent precursors (HRP) in a variety of strategies. Among these, amidyl radical HRPs have gained significant attention in recent years due to their ease of HRP synthesis

• /mol (Figure 2a) [28][29][30]. Almost 5 kcal/mol difference between two species could spontaneously undergo a HAT process. That also justifies the selectivity and efficiency of amidyl radical serving as HAT reagent. 2) Recent research indicated a critical correlation between electronic effects and

• radical anion 15 was reduced by the photocatalyst Ir(Fppy)3 from the reagent 11. The resulting anion 14 underwent aromatization to release a nitrile anion, subsequently yielding product 12. This strategy also successfully produced products 16 and 17 with yields of 85% and 56%, respectively, from

Recent advances in oxidative radical difunctionalization of N-arylacrylamides enabled by carbon radical reagents

• Jiangfei Chen,
• Yi-Lin Qu,
• Ming Yuan,
• Xiang-Mei Wu,
• Heng-Pei Jiang,
• Ying Fu and
• Shengrong Guo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1207–1271, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.98

• radical then reacts with acrylamide to yield the desired product 37. As shown in Scheme 21, a visible light-induced trifluoromethylation/arylation using Umemoto’s reagent for the synthesis of trifluoromethylated oxindole derivatives was reported by Huang and Zhang’s group in 2021 [13]. This method is

• particularly noteworthy for its use at room temperature, requiring no transition metals, photocatalysts, or additives. Notably, Umemoto's reagent served as the trifluoromethyl source, and the reaction was facilitated under blue LED irradiation, achieving good to excellent yields. Moreover, this approach

• ), the process involves the homolytic cleavage of Umemoto's reagent 39 under visible light irradiation, releasing a trifluoromethyl radical 42. The radical then adds to the double bond of N-arylacrylamide, forming intermediate radical 43. Subsequently, this intermediate undergoes intramolecular

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

• alcohol 58 in 93% yield. This alcohol was then acetylated using acetic anhydride and pyridine reagent. Finally, the resulting acetate 59 was treated with DDQ, affording the target compound 60 in 99% yield, corresponding to an overall yield of 49% over 18 steps starting from 51. Yadav’s approach for

• in their laboratory. The strategy primarily involved the reaction of a chiral organometallic reagent 115 with a chiral allyl electrophile 114, as depicted in Scheme 18. The resulting deoxypropionate 113 was obtained with the newly formed stereocenter controlled by the reagent directing group (RDG

• undesired oxidation to the corresponding phosphane oxide. The work continued with the preparation of the chiral organometallic reagent 124. Starting from known bromide 122, which was readily accessible from Roche ester (R)-121 [52] or 1,3-diol 123 [53][54] through literature procedures, the Grignard reagent

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

• -dithiocyanatopyrimidine (NDTP) as the coupling reagent for cinnamic acid amidation with swift reaction time (Scheme 4) [22]. The reaction of cinnamic acid (7) with NDTP resulted in the active acyl thioester 11 followed by a reaction with an amine to give the corresponding amide 10. The byproduct of the coupling reagent

• cinnamic acid (7) in a deep eutectic solvent of choline chloride/urea (ChCl/urea) to give amides 12 and 13 in moderate yields via triacylated triazine 14 as the active ester (Scheme 5A) [36]. The TCT reagent and ChCl/urea solvent are known for their non-toxicity and low cost, promoting their wide

• the electrophilic triazinedione, releasing DMAP to give ester 15 which reacts with DMAP to afford the active N-acylpyridinium species 16. In addition, N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N’-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC·HCl), a common coupling reagent, has been applied for a continuous flow

Harnessing tethered nitreniums for diastereoselective amino-sulfonoxylation of alkenes

• Shyam Sathyamoorthi,
• Appasaheb K. Nirpal,
• Dnyaneshwar A. Gorve and
• Steven P. Kelley

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 947–954, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.78

• reagent served to initiate nitrenium formation and alkene oxidation. Not all sulfonic acids, however, were compatible with these conditions and were recalcitrant for steric or electronic reasons. For these acids, replacing 1-acetoxy-1,2-benziodoxol-3-(1H)-one with the more reactive iodomesitylene

• (Scheme 3A). The mesylate could be cleanly substituted with azide by heating substrate with excess NaN3 in DMSO (Scheme 3B). With an excess of Schwartz’s reagent, the carbonyl was cleanly reduced to give 1,3-oxazine 62. Contrary to what we had initially predicted from literature precedent, there was no

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

• essential tertiary alcohol at C1. The β-hydroxylactone moiety (D ring) in 11 could be introduced through an intramolecular aldol condensation [35] of acetate 12. Ultimately, the preparation of 12 could be traced back to aldehyde 14 through 1,2-Grignard addition with an organomagnesium reagent [36] prepared

• instability of α-iodoenone 13. Inspired by the influential studies by Knochel [36] and Baran [48], we discovered that Mg/I exchange of 13 could be accomplished with iPrMgCl·LiCl at −78 °C. The resulting Grignard reagent reacted smoothly with aldehyde 14, affording the corresponding adduct 12 in 58% yield (92

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

• activation in the divergent synthesis of silacyclic compounds (Scheme 14) [43]. This reaction employs the ODCS reagent to capture a five-membered C,C-palladacycle species, using reaction time as a control switch to enable transformations of three distinct substrates – acrylamides, 2-halo-N

• imides and TMS-alkynes, enabling the rapid construction of S(VI)–C(sp2) or S(VI)–C(sp) bonds efficiently (Scheme 24) [55]. This linkage utilizes the high bond dissociation energy (BDE = 135 kcal/mol) of silicon–fluorine bonds, employing trifluoroborate as a fluorine transfer reagent to simultaneously

Regioselective formal hydrocyanation of allenes: synthesis of β,γ-unsaturated nitriles with α-all-carbon quaternary centers

• Seeun Lim,
• Teresa Kim and
• Yunmi Lee

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 800–806, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.63

• its synthetic utility and potential applicability in complex molecule synthesis. Results and Discussion We began by optimizing the hydrocyanation of allene 1a using DIBAL-H as the hydride source and p-toluenesulfonyl cyanide as the cyanating reagent (Scheme 2). Under previously established conditions

Recent advances in the electrochemical synthesis of organophosphorus compounds

• Babak Kaboudin,
• Milad Behroozi,
• Sepideh Sadighi and
• Fatemeh Asgharzadeh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 770–797, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.61

• according to the following mechanism via an anodic trimethylsilyl cyanide radical formation (Scheme 24). The formation of the Ph₃P=O as the side product was assumed to be due to the presence of water or oxygen in the reaction mixture, which competes with the aminating reagent. Electrochemical O–P bond

Development and mechanistic studies of calcium–BINOL phosphate-catalyzed hydrocyanation of hydrazones

• Carola Tortora,
• Christian A. Fischer,
• Sascha Kohlbauer,
• Alexandru Zamfir,
• Gerd M. Ballmann,
• Jürgen Pahl,
• Sjoerd Harder and
• Svetlana B. Tsogoeva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 755–765, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.59

• -tetrahedral coordination environment with cyanide, stemming from a common reagent (vide infra) and binding to the metal in a preferred side-on (π-complex) mode [54]. When the hydrazone substrate enters the catalytic cycle, it coordinates also as a bidentate ligand to calcium via oxygen and nitrogen atoms

• achieved by reacting 11 with stoichiometric reagent TMSCN (8). This "reloads" calcium with cyanide and replaces TMS-bound isolated product 12 from the metal complex and in which silicon, rather than calcium, is bound to the carbonyl oxygen. The addition reaction itself is rather exothermic (Figure 3) and

Asymmetric synthesis of fluorinated derivatives of aromatic and γ-branched amino acids via a chiral Ni(II) complex

• Maurizio Iannuzzi,
• Thomas Hohmann,
• Michael Dyrks,
• Kilian Haoues,
• Katarzyna Salamon-Krokosz and
• Beate Koksch

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 659–669, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.52

• , base, solvent, and reagent equivalents to optimize the alkylation reaction for both bromides 4 and 5 (Table 1 and Table 2). For Ni(II) complex of [2.3.5.6F]TfMePhe (6), firstly we screened different inorganic and organic bases (Table 1, entries 1–3) and 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) was

Recent advances in allylation of chiral secondary alkylcopper species

• Minjae Kim,
• Gwanggyun Kim,
• Doyoon Kim,
• Jun Hee Lee and
• Seung Hwan Cho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 639–658, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.51

• electrophiles While the direct formation of chiral copper species from organolithium compounds provides an efficient route to stereospecific allylic alkylation products, the requirement of stoichiometric amounts of the copper reagent limits its practical application [46]. An alternative approach utilizing more

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

• %), but when DMSO is used as solvent and reagent, the yield was greatly improved. The proposed mechanism involves the activation of the disulfide component by CuBr2 as the Lewis acid (Scheme 14). The copper(II) center coordinates the sulfur atom of the disulfide allowing for the electrophilic addition to

Study of the interaction of 2H-furo[3,2-b]pyran-2-ones with nitrogen-containing nucleophiles

• Constantine V. Milyutin,
• Andrey N. Komogortsev and
• Boris V. Lichitsky

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 556–563, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.44

• with diverse N-nucleophiles was investigated. It was shown that the direction of the process depends on the type of employed nitrogen-containing reagent. For example, condensation with aliphatic amines leads to 2H-furo[3,2-b]pyran-2,7(3H)-diones bearing an exocyclic enamine moiety. At the same time

• target product was not obtained (Table 1, entries 3–5). Apparently, the presence of acid reagent is necessary for implementation of considered recyclization. In this regard we tried to perform the process under study using phenylhydrazine in salt form. Indeed, reflux of furanone 1a with the corresponding

• the best result was achieved in the case of EtOH (Table 1, entry 7). Then, we optimized the process time for the reaction with reagent 7a. It was shown that 8 h reflux is enough for the considered recyclization (Table 1, entry 10). Wherein, further shortening of the duration decreased the yield of

Deep-blue emitting 9,10-bis(perfluorobenzyl)anthracene

• Long K. San,
• Sebastian Balser,
• Brian J. Reeves,
• Tyler T. Clikeman,
• Yu-Sheng Chen,
• Steven H. Strauss and
• Olga V. Boltalina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 515–525, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.39

• crystals, addition of a drop of 1,2-dibromoethane). Only the addition of 1,2-dibromoethane enabled the generation of the Grignard reagent which was observed by bubbles and an instant increase of the reaction mixture’s temperature. CF2C6F5I (97.5 µL, 625 µmol) dissolved in dry THF (20 mL) was added with a

Synthesis of the aggregation pheromone of Tribolium castaneum

• Biyu An,
• Xueyang Wang,
• Ao Jiao,
• Qinghua Bian and
• Jiangchun Zhong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 510–514, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.38

• with Grignard reagent, and oxidation with RuCl3/NaIO4. Keywords: aggregation pheromone; chiral 2-methyloxirane; red flour beetle; total synthesis; Introduction The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), is a cosmopolitan, destructive stored product pest [1], which

• olefine (5R,9R)-12, which could be obtained through Li2CuCl4-catalyzed coupling of chiral tosylate (S)-10 with a Grignard reagent derived from (R)-1-bromo-2-methylbutane ((R)-11). The key chiral building block (S)-10 was envisaged to be prepared through a sequence of hydrolyzation, decarboxylation, borane

• prepared the target aggregation pheromone (4R,8R)-1, (4R,8S)-1, (4S,8R)-1, and (4S,8S)-1 (Scheme 4). Li2CuCl4-catalyzed coupling of chiral tosylate (S)-10 with the Grignard reagent derived from (R)-1-bromo-2-methylbutane ((R)-11) and Mg afforded (5R,9R)-5,9-dimethylundec-1-ene ((5R,9R)-12) in 80% yield [35

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

• (9.1) (Scheme 9) [75]. In this case the authors used a ball-mill reactor equipped with a blue LED, and the reaction was run in a glass vial with two transparent PMMA balls. The authors noted that fluorination of the vial and the use of silica gel to adjust texture were needed to prevent reagent

• using a mixture of 12.1 (0.2 mmol), NaI (1 equiv), Koser’s reagent, and Na2CO3 (each 4 equiv), in the presence of 100 wt % of SAOED, pyrrolidine 12.2 was isolated in 90% yield. As far as the mechanochemical setup is concerned, the authors milled the reaction mixture at 30 Hz in a 5 mL stainless-steel