N-Sulfinylpyrrolidine-containing ureas and thioureas as bifunctional organocatalysts

• Viera Poláčková,
• Dominika Krištofíková,
• Boglárka Némethová,
• Renata Górová,
• Mária Mečiarová and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2629–2641, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.176

• well as enantioselectivity remained unchanged. We have used thiourea (S,R)-C1 for this Michael addition, too, but the catalyst was not successful for this reaction (not shown). Only traces of the Michael adduct were obtained in the solution reaction of butanal (6a) with 1-methoxy-4-(2-nitrovinyl

• ). The aliphatic aldehydes propanal (6d) and hexanal (6b) provided medium yields and diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity. The Michael addition of 3-phenylpropanal (6c) to (E)-3-(2-nitrovinyl)pyridine (11) required long reaction times (120 h) in solution, similar to those for the reaction with (E

• (7a) using sulfinylurea catalyst (S,R)-C2. A relatively high yield (81%) of Michael adduct 8a was formed in 3 hours of milling, with triethylamine as the base (Table 3, entry 1). The diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity reached comparable values as in the solvent conditions. The chemical yield

Recent advances in organocatalytic asymmetric aza-Michael reactions of amines and amides

• Pratibha Sharma,
• Raakhi Gupta and
• Raj K. Bansal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2585–2610, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.173

• of carbamates, sulfonamides and acetamides 13 bearing an α,β-unsaturated ketone to synthesize a series of 2-substituted five- and six-membered heterocycles in good yields (up to 99%) and excellent enantioselectivity (92–97.5% ee) (Table 3). As in an earlier case [29], several acids were tested as co

• afforded the corresponding adducts in good yields ranging from 72–99% with excellent diastereoselectivity (up to >99:1 dr) and enantioselectivity (>99% ee) (Table 6) [36]. In another report, Yang et al. accomplished a highly asymmetric cascade aza-Michael/Michael addition reaction for the synthesis of

• for the synthesis of dihydroisoquinoline and tetrahydropyridines from Michael reaction of ortho-homoformyl chalcone with various amines by using squaramide catalyst. The reaction occurred with good yields and excellent enantioselectivity [39]. Similarly, Li et al. reported an asymmetric cascade aza

α-Ketol and α-iminol rearrangements in synthetic organic and biosynthetic reactions

• Scott Benz and
• Andrew S. Murkin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2570–2584, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.172

• -pipecolinic acid, was the most effective. Optimized conditions for substrate 3 (11, m = 1; Ar = 2,6-iPr2C6H3) led to yields approaching 99% with 91% ee. Addition of substituents on the phenyl group maintained excellent enantioselectivity, with 84% to 92% ee. Most of the twelve derivatives tested also had

Targeting active site residues and structural anchoring positions in terpene synthases

• Anwei Hou and
• Jeroen S. Dickschat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2441–2449, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.161

• (13% ee) was observed, pointing to the formation of (R)-8 with 16% ee (average of both experiments). The enantiomeric composition of the products 8 and 9 from the other enzyme variants was analysed following the same strategy, revealing that (R)-nephthenol was produced with high enantioselectivity

• enantiomeric ratios through (R)- and (S)-A. Compound 9 may be obtained with a high enantioselectivity, because an active site water could be near to the cationic centre in (R)-A, but distant in (S)-A. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 354: Amino acid sequence alignment, details about the

Enantioselective PCCP Brønsted acid-catalyzed aminalization of aldehydes

• Martin Kamlar,
• Robert Reiberger,
• Martin Nigríni,
• Ivana Císařová and
• Jan Veselý

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2433–2440, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.160

• stereogenic carbon center with good enantioselectivity (ee up to 80%) and excellent yields (up to 97%). Keywords: aminalization; Brønsted acid; organocatalysis; PCCP; pentacarboxycyclopentadiene; Introduction Nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds are commonly occurring in nature and constitute the core

• organocatalytic synthesis of molecules with this moiety uses the reaction between aldehydes and anthranilamide building blocks. The advantage of this methodology lies in the fact that both starting materials are readily available, and the enantioselectivity of such cyclization reactions can be controlled by

• the enantioselectivity of the aminalization reaction. While most solvents tested showed to be effective at room temperature, the enantiomeric purity of the corresponding aminal 3a was low in all cases (Table 1, entries 1–5). On the other hand, the yield of 3a was satisfactory in all reactions. In

Base-free enantioselective S_N2 alkylation of 2-oxindoles via bifunctional phase-transfer catalysis

• Mili Litvajova,
• Emiliano Sorrentino,
• Brendan Twamley and
• Stephen J. Connon

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2287–2294, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.146

• other hand, such electron-withdrawing groups, α to the reactive centre, dramatically changes the acidity of the substrate (and thus the reactivity of the enolate conjugate base) and as consequence its reactivity which can drastically impact the enantioselectivity in SN2 alkylation processes. In this

• catalytic reaction exhibited poor enantioselectivity and none of the catalysts employed were able to promote the reaction with product ee higher than 22% (Scheme 1C – for more details see Supporting Information File 1). Over the last decade, Maruoka and co-workers discovered that phase-transfer-catalysed

• process. In preliminary studies, we observed that a substituent at the catalyst C-2' position was enhancing the enantioselectivity of the reaction. Initial attention was therefore focused on the influence the other catalyst subunits (i.e., catalysts 7–9, Table 1) exerted over both reactivity and

Halides as versatile anions in asymmetric anion-binding organocatalysis

• Lukas Schifferer,
• Martin Stinglhamer,
• Kirandeep Kaur and
• Olga García Macheño

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2270–2286, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.145

• cyclization reaction of succinimide and glutarimide-derived hydroxylactams 7 (Scheme 3) [33]. This system was designed in a way that key experimental observations could be made to analyze whether a SN1 or SN2-type mechanism takes place. A strong dependence of the enantioselectivity on the counterion and

• enantioselectivity, but this system also allowed the control over regioselectivity (C2 vs C4 cyclization) through alteration of the N-substituent of the pyrrole substrate and the acylating reagent (Scheme 4a) [34]. This example showcases that next to the counterion, the acylating group can have a major influence on

• existence of two competing Brønsted acid and Lewis acid mechanistic pathways leading to the same product with high enantioselectivity was then uncovered. Jacobsen et al. reasoned that the key for this highly selective transformation lies in attractive cation–π and cation–dipole secondary interactions

Enantioenriched α-substituted glutamates/pyroglutamates via enantioselective cyclopropenimine-catalyzed Michael addition of amino ester imines

• Zara M. Seibel,
• Jeffrey S. Bandar and
• Tristan H. Lambert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2077–2084, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.134

• Michael adduct 2 was generated in a 4:1 ratio along with the cycloadduct 3 [43], which we had not observed in our previous study of glycinate imine substrates. The aminoindanol-derived catalyst 5 was more reactive and resulted in improved enantioselectivity (89% ee), but afforded the same 4:1 ratio of the

• ) improved the reactivity somewhat but was detrimental to enantioselectivity (Table 1, entry 4), while changing the relative stereochemistry of the hydroxy substituent resulted in an inactive catalyst (8, entry 5 in Table 1). Likewise, catalysts such as 9 lacking a hydrogen-bonding substituent were not

• approximately equal enantioselectivities but resulted in slightly worse ratios of 2 and 3. 1,4-Dioxane was notably detrimental to the reactivity and selectivity (Table 1, entry 9). On the other hand, the use of diethyl ether as solvent resulted in a high reactivity, enantioselectivity of 93%, and no erosion of

Asymmetric organocatalyzed synthesis of coumarin derivatives

• Natália M. Moreira,
• Lorena S. R. Martelli and
• Arlene G. Corrêa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1952–1980, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.128

• was synthesized by Kumagai et al. and applied in the Michael addition of 4-hydroxycoumarin 1 with α,β-unsaturated ketones 2 [42]. This chiral primary amino amide organocatalyst 32 afforded the desired products 3, including warfarin (3a) in 86% yield, although in moderate enantioselectivity (up to 56

• a high diastereoisomeric control and in most cases with good enantioselectivity of the products. It becomes even more attractive, since it allows an in situ rearrangement of the acyl group that can be used in other functionalization methodologies. However, it presents a limitation relative to the

• , with moderate to excellent enantioselectivity followed by two decarboxylations (Scheme 21). Huang’s group has used azadienes to perform an enantioselective 1,4-addition to afford benzofuran-fused six-membered heterocycles with a squaramide catalyst [56]. Based on their previous work, the authors

On the application of 3d metals for C–H activation toward bioactive compounds: The key step for the synthesis of silver bullets

• Renato L. Carvalho,
• Amanda S. de Miranda,
• Mateus P. Nunes,
• Roberto S. Gomes,
• Guilherme A. M. Jardim and
• Eufrânio N. da Silva Júnior

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1849–1938, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.126

• ]. The desired aminoindane derivatives were obtained with good regio- and enantioselectivity, (product A/product B was observed in a ratio higher than 19:1, Scheme 5C). It is worth mentioning that aminoindanes are scaffolds also present in biologically active molecules that may present, for example

Development of N-F fluorinating agents and their fluorinations: Historical perspective

• Teruo Umemoto,
• Yuhao Yang and
• Gerald B. Hammond

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1752–1813, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.123

• -dichlorocamphorsultam) 17-2 [75] (Scheme 37). The maximum enantioselectivity of enolates of β-ketoesters with (−)-9-1 or (+)-9-2, first prepared by Lang in 1988 (see section 1-9), was 70% ee. The asymmetric fluorination with (+)- or (−)-17-2 afforded up to 75% ee as indicated in Scheme 38. The dichloro reagent 17-2

Organocatalytic asymmetric Michael/acyl transfer reaction between α-nitroketones and 4-arylidenepyrrolidine-2,3-diones

• Chandrakanta Parida and
• Subhas Chandra Pan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1447–1452, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.100

• reported. A bifunctional thiourea catalyst was found to be effective for this reaction. With 10 mol % of the catalyst, good results were attained for a variety of 1,5-dihydro-2H-pyrrol-2-ones under mild reaction conditions. Keywords: acyl transfer; enantioselectivity; Michael reaction; organocatalysis

• be suitable reaction partners of α-nitroketones. However, during the progress of our work, Bonne, Bugaut and co-workers have shown one example for the reaction of 2-nitroacetophenone with 4-benzylidenepyrrolidine-2,3-dione and only moderate enantioselectivity (50% ee) was achieved (Scheme 1) [25

• quinine and cinchonidine-derived bifunctional thiourea catalysts III and IV were employed in the reaction and moderate enantiomeric excesses were achieved. The yield and enantioselectivity further improved when using the tert-leucine-derived thiourea catalyst V. Also, Takemoto’s catalyst VI [28] was

A comprehensive review of flow chemistry techniques tailored to the flavours and fragrances industries

• Guido Gambacorta,
• James S. Sharley and
• Ian R. Baxendale

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1181–1312, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.90

• often a work-up procedure meaning that this approach is very accommodating of direct telescoping into further reaction steps and reactors. So far, heterogeneous catalysis of aldol reactions in flow has been mostly geared towards achieving transformations with high enantioselectivity, towards decreasing

• , the (S)-enantioselectivity could be reversed by inversion of stereochemistry at the terminal proline moiety of the supported peptide. Ötvös’ protocol highlights some of the key advantages of this immobilisation approach, i.e., improved reaction kinetics over batch (higher effective catalyst loading

Recent advances in palladium-catalysed asymmetric 1,4–additions of arylboronic acids to conjugated enones and chromones

• Jan Bartáček,
• Jan Svoboda,
• Martin Kocúrik,
• Jaroslav Pochobradský,
• Alexander Čegan,
• Miloš Sedlák and
• Jiří Váňa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1048–1085, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.84

• in excellent yields (89–94%) and enantioselectivities (95–99% ee; Table 3). It is worth mentioning that a free phenolic hydroxy group did not interfere with the Pd complex and did not affect the enantioselectivity of the reaction. The authors also demonstrated that the product mixture obtained after

• combination provided the product in an excellent yield (60–99%) and enantioselectivity (up to 97% ee; Table 4), the only exception being the addition of an ortho-substituted boronic acid (entry 5, Table 4) [36]. In 2008, the same group further expanded the substrate scope of the addition reaction to electron

• -hydride elimination. However, the obtained yields were inconsistent. The usage of Pd(TFA)2 led to a better reproducibility of the results. From the various diphosphine ligands tested, (R,R)-MeDuPhos (L2) was identified as the one leading to the best level of enantioselectivity (up to 99% yield and up to

Prins cyclization-mediated stereoselective synthesis of tetrahydropyrans and dihydropyrans: an inspection of twenty years

• Asha Budakoti,
• Pradip Kumar Mondal,
• Prachi Verma and
• Jagadish Khamrai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 932–963, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.77

• hydroxyallylsilane 186 with excellent enantioselectivity (Scheme 45) [83][84][85]. This, upon further reaction with another aldehyde in the presence of TMSOTf, gave 2,6-disubstituted 4-methylenetetrahydropyran 187. This strategy was utilized for the synthesis of bryostatin and (+)-dactyloide analogs [86][87][88

• enantioselectivity varied with the polarity of the solvent. The optimization study disclosed that the enantioselectivity increases with the decrease of the polarity of the solvent (Scheme 68). Yu and co-workers reported a novel segment-coupling Prins cyclization involving sequential benzylic/allylic C–H bond

• with alcohol 307 to obtain 309 (Scheme 71) [113]. The introduction of electron-withdrawing nitro groups on the BINOL backbone in the catalysts significantly enhanced the reactivity and enantioselectivity. Zhou et al. reported an asymmetric Prins cyclization of in situ-generated quinone methides from

Kinetics of enzyme-catalysed desymmetrisation of prochiral substrates: product enantiomeric excess is not always constant

• Peter J. Halling

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 873–884, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.73

• ] showed how these changes reflected an unchanging characteristic of the enzyme, the enantioselectivity E, equal to the ratio of kcat/Km values for the two enantiomers. The Chen and Sih equations are widely used to analyse the progress of resolution reactions. Chen and Sih also described the influence of

• are labelled by “SC”, usually followed by R or S (for the two enantiomers), then f or b to indicate the forward or backwards progress through the relevant two steps. SC values were normally used for the two steps that involve enantioselectivity (2 and 3 for the ordered, second mechanism, 3 and 4 for

• enantioselectivity in resolution reactions. Similarly, the ratio SCRf/SCRb was found to have an important influence in all cases – it is given the symbol SCRf/b. For the ping-pong, both mechanism, the ratio SCR2f/SCS2f is also relevant, and was given the symbol E2. Behaviour for “ordered, second” kinetics This is

Synthetic reactions driven by electron-donor–acceptor (EDA) complexes

• Zhonglie Yang,
• Yutong Liu,
• Kun Cao,
• Xiaobin Zhang,
• Hezhong Jiang and
• Jiahong Li

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 771–799, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.67

• same time providing effective asymmetric induction in the capture of the resulting radical along with enantioselectivity of the product. In 2016, based on the experimental work in 2015 [27], Yu and colleagues [29] reported a type of EDA complex that could complete the hydrotrifluoromethylation of

α,γ-Dioxygenated amides via tandem Brook rearrangement/radical oxygenation reactions and their application to syntheses of γ-lactams

• Mikhail K. Klychnikov,
• Radek Pohl,
• Ivana Císařová and
• Ullrich Jahn

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 688–704, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.58

• reported. The sequence starts with a new tandem nucleophilic substitution/Brook rearrangement/single electron transfer-induced radical oxygenation furnishing orthogonally protected α,γ-dioxygenated N-allylamides with wide scope, mostly good yields, and partly good diastereo- and enantioselectivity for

• represents an oxidative C–C/C–O difunctionalization at the α-position of the amides. With correct configuration combination of chiral epoxides 7 and chiral amides 8, 2,4-dioxygenated amides 9 can be obtained with good anti-diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity. Dioxygenated amides 9 are convenient

The synthesis of chiral β-naphthyl-β-sulfanyl ketones via enantioselective sulfa-Michael reaction in the presence of a bifunctional cinchona/sulfonamide organocatalyst

• Deniz Tözendemir and
• Cihangir Tanyeli

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 494–503, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.43

• and thiourea–quinine organocatalysts both gave the target compound with only 41% ee, which was well below satisfactory (Table 1, entries 10 and 11). The best catalyst in terms of enantioselectivity proved to be the newly designed catalyst 5, which gave the desired product with 63% ee in 1 hour (Table

•  1, entry 1). After selecting the best-working catalyst, optimization studies were initiated on the model reaction to determine the conditions to achieve the best enantioselectivity. The first parameter screened was the effect of the solvent. Using THF and dioxane (Table 1, entries 14 and 16

• values. Thus, THF was selected as the best solvent despite the longer reaction duration. Then, the catalyst loading was varied between 0.1 and 10 mol % to investigate its effect on the enantioselectivity (Table 2, entries 1–6). At an extremely low catalyst loading of 0.1 mol %, the reaction was too

The preparation and properties of 1,1-difluorocyclopropane derivatives

• Kymbat S. Adekenova,
• Peter B. Wyatt and
• Sergazy M. Adekenov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 245–272, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.25

• )-monoacetate (S)-80, respectively (Scheme 32). As for the transesterification, a high yield (96.5%) and enantioselectivity (91.3% ee) were obtained using lipase PS in benzene. In the case of the deacetylation, the use of Amano PS lipase in acetone gave a high yield (86.2%), enantioselectivity (91.7% ee), and

• nitrile hydratase–amidase-containing biocatalytic system and showed a high chemo-, regio-, and enantioselectivity in the hydrolysis of nitriles and dinitriles. The biocatalytic transformations of nitrile 81 (Scheme 33) supplied an effective route to optically active 2,2-difluorosubstituted 3

Au(III) complexes with tetradentate-cyclam-based ligands

• Ann Christin Reiersølmoen,
• Thomas N. Solvi and
• Anne Fiksdahl

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 186–192, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.18

• trans product. Thus, the proper choice of the gold catalyst allows highly stereoselective formation of either cis or trans cyclopropanation products and facilitates the isolation of pure isomers. Despite the chiral nature of these ligands, no enantioselectivity was observed in the test reactions

• . A high catalytic ability was shown for novel N,N,N,N-Au(III) complexes 5a and 6a in alkyne carboalkoxylation and propargyl ester cyclopropanation (full conversion in 1–24 h, 62–97% product yields). No enantioselectivity was observed in the test reactions. The activity and stability of the Au(III

Insight into functionalized-macrocycles-guided supramolecular photocatalysis

• Minzan Zuo,
• Krishnasamy Velmurugan,
• Kaiya Wang,
• Xueqi Tian and
• Xiao-Yu Hu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 139–155, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.15

• system. Based on the above-mentioned approaches, organic and inorganic template-assisted diverse supramolecular assemblies have been constructed to optimize the photochemical reactivity as well as regio- and enantioselectivity [5][6]. In addition, to understand the excited-state properties of the guest

• external factors of this photocyclodimerization reaction (such as the temperature, pressure, salt concentration, and host substituents), the regio- and enantioselectivity could considerably be varied to 71% ee for 14 and 45% ee for 15, respectively. In this supramolecular system, the 2:2 complex could

Chiral anion recognition using calix[4]arene-based ureido receptors in a 1,3-alternate conformation

• Tereza Horáčková,
• Jan Budka,
• Vaclav Eigner,
• Wen-Sheng Chung,
• Petra Cuřínová and
• Pavel Lhoták

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2999–3007, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.249

• exhibited complexation constants higher than the butyl-substituted analogues 7b and 8b for all anions – compare 7a (Table 1, run 5, K = 660 M−1) vs 7b (Table 2, run 15, K = 90 M−1). On the other hand, despite the differences in the K values, the enantioselectivity remained almost the same in both receptor

Recent developments in enantioselective photocatalysis

• Callum Prentice,
• James Morrisson,
• Andrew D. Smith and
• Eli Zysman-Colman

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2363–2441, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.197

• enantioselectivity, the review will be organized according to these strategies. Mechanistic understanding is vital to furthering development of any field of organic chemistry, so the mechanisms proposed by the authors are included for many examples, although the level of mechanistic investigation that accompanies

• chemical yield and enantioselectivity (all values converted to nearest per cent enantiomeric ratio (er) for clarity) will be the common data for comparison; however, where possible the quantum yields of the photochemical reactions will also be provided as this latter metric provides the most accurate

• catalyst and intermediate 112 for the synthesis of (–)-cephalimysin A in moderate yield and excellent enantioselectivity (98:2 er). Interestingly, there have been multiple reports of racemic reactions that combine photoredox and NHC catalysis [53][54][55][56], but few enantioselective examples, suggesting

Hierarchically assembled helicates as reaction platform – from stoichiometric Diels–Alder reactions to enamine catalysis

• David Van Craen,
• Jenny Begall,
• Johannes Großkurth,
• Leonard Himmel,
• Oliver Linnenberg,
• Elisabeth Isaak and
• Markus Albrecht

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2338–2345, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.195

• solvent dependence of the stereochemical induction of the Diels–Alder reaction by the phenylethyl-derived ligand 2 was studied using N-benzylmaleimide (8e) as dienophile (Table 1). The solvents dioxane (17% ee) and acetone (14% ee) showed a slight decrease of the enantioselectivity compared to THF (21% ee

• ). The yields of the reactions were rather moderate. On the other hand, the use of acetonitrile had no significant influence on the yield compared to acetone while the enantioselectivity dramatically dropped to 8% ee. In this case the lower selectivity correlated with the increasing lithium solvating

• ] is present. Expanding the aromatic unit to a naphthyl group in 3-H2 resulted in an increase of the enantioselectivity to 44% ee. Even better selectivities were obtained with 4-H2 bearing an indanyl [33][34] substituent which combines a stereogenic center implemented in a ring system providing