Preparation of neuroprotective condensed 1,4-benzoxazepines by regio- and diastereoselective domino Knoevenagel–[1,5]-hydride shift cyclization reaction

• László Tóth,
• Yan Fu,
• Hai Yan Zhang,
• Attila Mándi,
• Katalin E. Kövér,
• Tünde-Zita Illyés,
• Attila Kiss-Szikszai,
• Balázs Balogh,
• Tibor Kurtán,
• Sándor Antus and
• Péter Mátyus

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 2594–2602, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.272

• ] or organocatalytic [16][17] reactions and the mechanism of the stereospecific hydride transfer have been recently studied by several research groups. The synthetic potential of the diastereoselective domino Knoevenagel–[1,5]-hydride shift cyclization reaction was exploited in our present work for the

Chiral phosphines in nucleophilic organocatalysis

• Yumei Xiao,
• Zhanhu Sun,
• Hongchao Guo and
• Ohyun Kwon

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 2089–2121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.218

• phosphines possessing various chiral skeletons that have been used in asymmetric nucleophilic organocatalytic reactions, including annulations of allenes, alkynes, and Morita–Baylis–Hillman (MBH) acetates, carbonates, and ketenes with activated alkenes and imines, allylic substitutions of MBH acetates and

• organocatalytic asymmetric domino reactions allow the rapid construction of structurally complex molecules from readily available starting materials in two or more steps in a single operation, they have attracted much attention. Bifunctional chiral phosphines are ideal chiral catalysts for tandem reactions. In

A new charge-tagged proline-based organocatalyst for mechanistic studies using electrospray mass spectrometry

• J. Alexander Willms,
• Rita Beel,
• Martin L. Schmidt,
• Christian Mundt and
• Marianne Engeser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 2027–2037, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.211

• reactions with high efficiency and selectivity are nowadays known so that organocatalysis complements current catalytic fields such as organometallic or enzymatic catalysis as an independent subdomain [24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Parallel to the enormous growth of organocatalytic applications in synthesis

• , mechanistic studies on organocatalytic reactions [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] using ESI mass spectrometry [20][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] have been reported. The pioneering studies of List and Barbas [50] revealed that the amino acid L-proline is an effective catalyst for a great variety

Cyclization–endoperoxidation cascade reactions of dienes mediated by a pyrylium photoredox catalyst

• Nathan J. Gesmundo and
• David A. Nicewicz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1272–1281, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.128

• the reactivity of the diene with respect to its structure to better predict the mode of diene cation radical cyclization (5-exo vs 6-endo). Herein is reported an organocatalytic photoredox-mediated strategy for the endoperoxidation of 1,5-dienes using 3O2 to rapidly generate complex endoperoxide

Visible-light photoredox catalyzed synthesis of pyrroloisoquinolines via organocatalytic oxidation/[3 + 2] cycloaddition/oxidative aromatization reaction cascade with Rose Bengal

• Carlos Vila,
• Jonathan Lau and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1233–1238, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.122

Preparation of phosphines through C–P bond formation

• Iris Wauters,
• Wouter Debrouwer and
• Christian V. Stevens

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1064–1096, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.106

• papers appeared reporting on organocatalyzed asymmetric hydrophosphinations. The organocatalytic process has the advantage that in contrast to a metal-catalyzed method, it cannot undergo product inhibition as a result of the coordination ability of phosphorus to a metal catalyst. The addition of

Primary-tertiary diamine-catalyzed Michael addition of ketones to isatylidenemalononitrile derivatives

• Akshay Kumar and
• Swapandeep Singh Chimni

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 929–935, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.91

• attention as novel substrates for the enantioselective synthesis of 3,3'-disubstituted oxindoles [18][19][20][21][22]. The organocatalytic Michael addition of ketones to isatylidenemalononitriles via enamine-catalysis has emerged as a useful tool for the synthesis of 3,3'-disubstituted oxindoles, which

Addition of H-phosphonates to quinine-derived carbonyl compounds. An unexpected C9 phosphonate–phosphate rearrangement and tandem intramolecular piperidine elimination

• Łukasz Górecki,
• Artur Mucha and
• Paweł Kafarski

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 883–889, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.85

• ; Introduction Medicinal, organocatalytic and stereoselective properties of quinine make it the most prominent representative of Cinchona alkaloids [1], a group of natural compounds of a unique three-dimensional structure. The structure involves a particular arrangement of two rigid heterocyclic fragments

Isocyanide-based multicomponent reactions towards cyclic constrained peptidomimetics

• Gijs Koopmanschap,
• Eelco Ruijter and
• Romano V.A. Orru

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 544–598, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.50

• imines and chiral isocyanides (Scheme 16) [59]. The chiral isocyanides were prepared following an organocatalytic phase-transfer Mannich-type reaction [59], whereas the chiral imines 52a,b were obtained from a bio-catalytic protocol [60]. In particular, the rigid bicyclic imines are powerful starting

Concise, stereodivergent and highly stereoselective synthesis of cis- and trans-2-substituted 3-hydroxypiperidines – development of a phosphite-driven cyclodehydration

• Peter H. Huy,
• Julia C. Westphal and
• Ari M. P. Koskinen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 369–383, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.35

• enantioselective lithiation and subsequent hydroxyalkylation. 4. Recently, Pansare [40] reported the synthesis of L-733,060, CP-99,994 and a hydroxypipecolic acid through asymmetric organocatalytic vinylogous aldol addition as the key step. While the syntheses by Charette [38] and Pansare [40] are restricted to

Organocatalytic asymmetric fluorination of α-chloroaldehydes involving kinetic resolution

• Kazutaka Shibatomi,
• Takuya Okimi,
• Yoshiyuki Abe,
• Akira Narayama,
• Nami Nakamura and
• Seiji Iwasa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 323–331, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.30

• stereogenic center(s), are fascinating building blocks for new drug candidates. Organocatalytic α-fluorination of aldehydes is known to be an efficient strategy for the enantioselective construction of fluorinated chiral carbon centers [3][4][5][6]; however, very few successful studies have been published on

• the fluorination of α-branched aldehydes [7]. During the course of our study on the enantioselective construction of such fluorinated stereogenic centers, we developed a method for the enantioselective synthesis of α-chloro-α-fluoroaldehydes via the organocatalytic α-fluorination of α-alkyl-α

• yielded 4a having the R configuration (Scheme 1). An investigation of the substrate scope of the organocatalytic fluorination of α-chloroaldehydes was performed as shown in Table 1. The reaction of 2a with 3 equiv of NFSI yielded 4a in 87% ee along with monochloro alcohol 5a in 37% ee (Table 1, entry 2

New hydrogen-bonding organocatalysts: Chiral cyclophosphazanes and phosphorus amides as catalysts for asymmetric Michael additions

• Helge Klare,
• Jörg M. Neudörfl and
• Bernd Goldfuss

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 224–236, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.18

• -triamide III and cyclodiphosphazane IV and their comparison to the “classic” motifs I and II suggest a slightly larger spacing and are reported herein. We furthermore report the synthesis of chiral variants of the catalyst motifs III and IV and their successful application in the organocatalytic addition

• has been reported for 9-epi-aminoquinine-based thiourea catalysts in other organocatalytic reactions [46]. Indeed the yields are slightly higher (70%), however the enantioselectivity is low (11% ee). Altering the ligand backbone to the corresponding 9-epi-amino derivatives dramatically improves the

Multicomponent reactions II

• Thomas J. J. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 115–116, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.7

• again presents a snap shot of this highly dynamic field. With the traditional formats of letters, full papers, and reviews it spans the broad range of modern chemistry, including organocatalytic, organometallic, transition metal-catalyzed, radical reactions, condensation and isonitrile-based MCR

Stereoselectively fluorinated N-heterocycles: a brief survey

• Xiang-Guo Hu and
• Luke Hunter

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2696–2708, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.306

• the context of organocatalysis. Fluorination of proline itself, as well as related N-heterocycles, has been shown to increase enantioselectivity in certain organocatalytic processes [13]. For example, Alexakis and co-workers found that the non-fluorinated catalyst 13 (Scheme 2) catalysed an alkylation

A combined continuous microflow photochemistry and asymmetric organocatalysis approach for the enantioselective synthesis of tetrahydroquinolines

• Erli Sugiono and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2457–2462, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.284

• Erli Sugiono Magnus Rueping Institute of Organic Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Landoltweg 1, D-52074 Aachen, Germany 10.3762/bjoc.9.284 Abstract A continuous-flow asymmetric organocatalytic photocyclization–transfer hydrogenation cascade reaction has been developed. The new protocol allows

Total synthesis of (−)-epimyrtine by a gold-catalyzed hydroamination approach

• Thi Thanh Huyen Trinh,
• Khanh Hung Nguyen,
• Patricia de Aguiar Amaral and
• Nicolas Gouault

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2042–2047, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.242

• of (−)-epimyrtine have been described to date including the intramolecular allylsilane N-acyliminium ion cyclization [6], the organocatalytic aza-Michael reaction [7], the intramolecular Mannich reaction [8], and the iminium ion cascade reaction [9][10]. More efficient, convenient and highly

Organocatalyzed enantioselective desymmetrization of aziridines and epoxides

• Ping-An Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1677–1695, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.192

• organocatalysts. Cinchona alkaloid derivatives The first organocatalytic enantioselective desymmetrization of meso-aziridines was discovered by Hou and co-workers in 2007 [40] with various arylthiols as nucleophiles in CCl4 at 0 °C in the presence of cinchonine-derived phase-transfer catalysts (PTCs, Figure 2, OC

• (3% ee). The usage of Boc for the N-protected group in aziridine resulted in no enantioselectivity under the optimum conditions. The organocatalytic enantioselective ring-opening of N-protected aziridines by β-ketoesters by means of cinchona alkaloid-derived PTCs (Figure 3, OC-12 to OC-19) for

• asymmetric ring-opening of epoxides remained stagnant for sixteen years. In 1997, Fu [79] and colleagues have developed a phosphaferrocene OC-56 for the organocatalytic ring-opening of epoxides with trimethylsilyl chloride (TMSCl) to provide trans O-TMS protected vicinal chlorohydrins in quantitative yields

Bioinspired total synthesis of katsumadain A by organocatalytic enantioselective 1,4-conjugate addition

• Yongguang Wang,
• Ruiyang Bao,
• Shengdian Huang and
• Yefeng Tang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1601–1606, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.182

• neuraminidase (NA) inhibitor, was synthesized by using a bioinspired, organocatalytic enantioselective 1,4-conjugate addition of styryl-2-pyranone with cinnamaldehyde, followed by a tandem Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons/oxa Michael addition. Keywords: bioinspired synthesis; catalysis; katsumadain A; natural product

• ; organocatalytic 1,4-conjugate addition; Introduction 2-Pyranone is a privilege structure that is often present in natural products and pharmaceuticals, many of which exhibit diverse molecular architectures and biological profiles [1][2]. For example, katsumadain A (1) and B (2), which were isolated from Alpinia

• strategy was designed as a fallback, in which katsumadain A could be accessed from the lactol 5a and phosphonate 6 via a tandem Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons (HWE)/oxa-Michael addition reaction [16]. In turn, 5a could be derived from 3 and cinnamaldehyde (7) by an organocatalytic enantioselective 1,4-conjugate

Organocatalytic asymmetric selenofunctionalization of tryptamine for the synthesis of hexahydropyrrolo[2,3-b]indole derivatives

• Qiang Wei,
• Ya-Yi Wang,
• Yu-Liu Du and
• Liu-Zhu Gong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1559–1564, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.177

A reductive coupling strategy towards ripostatin A

• Kristin D. Schleicher and
• Timothy F. Jamison

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1533–1550, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.175

• to C14–C15 of ripostatin A instead was sought. Oxy-Michael approach to epoxide We were intrigued by a recent report by Falck describing an organocatalytic oxy-Michael addition to achiral δ-hydroxy-α,β-enones (Scheme 12) [52]. The hydroxy group is delivered in a directed fashion from the boronic acid

An organocatalytic route to 2-heteroarylmethylene decorated N-arylpyrroles

• Alexandre Jean,
• Jérôme Blanchet,
• Jacques Rouden,
• Jacques Maddaluno and
• Michaël De Paolis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1480–1486, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.168

Thiourea-catalyzed Diels–Alder reaction of a naphthoquinone monoketal dienophile

• Carsten S. Kramer and
• Stefan Bräse

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1414–1418, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.158

• , the high exo-selectivity for the Diels–Alder reaction can be explained. In the disfavored transition state II the bulky OTBS-group conflicts with the catalyst–substrate complex. Many organocatalytic reactions are known for their long reaction times because of the relatively weak interactions between

Metal-free aerobic oxidations mediated by N-hydroxyphthalimide. A concise review

• Lucio Melone and
• Carlo Punta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1296–1310, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.146

• hydrocarbons, Xu and co-workers developed other redox initiators in addition to the NHPI/quinone systems previously described. In 2005 they reported the selective oxygenation of ethylbenzene to the corresponding acetophenone by means of a NHPI/o-phenanthroline-mediated organocatalytic system, in the presence

• from N-alkoxyphthalimides. Visible-light/g-C3N4 induced metal-free oxidation of allylic substrates. NHPI/o-phenanthroline-mediated organocatalytic system. NHPI/DMG-mediated organocatalytic system. NHPI catalyzed oxidative cleavage of C=C bonds. Synthesis of hydrazine derivatives. Acknowledgements We

Synthesis of the tetracyclic core of Illicium sesquiterpenes using an organocatalyzed asymmetric Robinson annulation

• Lynnie Trzoss,
• Jing Xu,
• Michelle H. Lacoske and
• Emmanuel A. Theodorakis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1135–1140, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.126

• proceeded under organocatalytic conditions to form the Hajos–Wiechert-like enone 8. The overall strategy highlights the importance of organocatalytic approaches in the modern synthesis of bioactive natural products [111][112][113][114][115][116]. Representative majucin-type Illicium sesquiterpenes

Camera-enabled techniques for organic synthesis

• Steven V. Ley,
• Richard J. Ingham,
• Matthew O’Brien and
• Duncan L. Browne

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1051–1072, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.118

• ]. The route required a significant quantity of an orthogonally protected piperazic acid (Figure 10). This was achieved using a new enantioselective organocatalytic protocol with a tetrazole organocatalyst, which afforded dihydro pyridazines from achiral aldehydes [61][62]. Unfortunately, while this