The aminoindanol core as a key scaffold in bifunctional organocatalysts

• Isaac G. Sonsona,
• Eugenia Marqués-López and
• Raquel P. Herrera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 505–523, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.50

• formation of catalytically active oxazaborolidines using cis-1,2-aminoindanol derivatives [9][10] and (b) the synthesis of more active cooperative thiourea-urea-based organocatalysts, which employ the aminoindanol framework as structural linker between two hydrogen-bond-donor moieties [11]. The latter ones

• acting through hydrogen bonding, such as thiourea, urea, squaramide, and thioamide frameworks. These have been efficiently employed in a few organocatalytic processes such as Friedel–Crafts alkylations, Michael additions, Diels–Alder reactions and aza-Henry reactions, as discussed below. Friedel–Crafts

• -type alkylation reaction of indoles To the best of our knowledge, the first example of an aminoindanol-containing bifunctional organocatalyst was reported by Ricci and co-workers in 2005 [18]. In this pioneering study, the authors used the easily prepared cis-(1R,2S)-aminoindanol-based thiourea

(Thio)urea-mediated synthesis of functionalized six-membered rings with multiple chiral centers

• Giorgos Koutoulogenis,
• Nikolaos Kaplaneris and
• Christoforos G. Kokotos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 462–495, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.48

• chiral centers; organocatalysis; six-membered ring; thiourea; urea; Introduction During the last 15 years, organocatalysis has flourished and has been established as one of the three major pillars of asymmetric synthesis [1][2][3]. Among the modes of activation of organic molecules that have been

• also achieved organocatalytically with hydrogen bonding. Organocatalysts that contribute to hydrogen bond formation bear usually a urea or thiourea moiety and they mostly interact with carbonyl groups, nitro moieties or even imines that exist to the substrates, leading to increased electrophilicity

• ; urea and thiourea moieties have also been proposed to interact with nucleophiles. Besides the fact that hydrogen bond donors increase the electrophilicity of the substrates, they mostly coordinate the transition state of the reaction, controlling this way the stereoselectivity of the products. It has

Cupreines and cupreidines: an established class of bifunctional cinchona organocatalysts

• Laura A. Bryant,
• Rossana Fanelli and
• Alexander J. A. Cobb

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 429–443, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.46

• asymmetric organocatalysis. This fascinating class of bifunctional catalyst offers a genuine alternative to the more commonly used thiourea systems and because of the different spacing between the functional groups, can control enantioselectivity where other organocatalysts have failed. In the main, this

• optimize their stereoselective behaviour has seen their utility burgeon dramatically over the last decade. Of particular note is the use of these cinchona systems within bifunctional thiourea catalysis [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Cupreine (CPN) and cupreidine (CPD), the non-natural demethylated

Organocatalytic asymmetric Henry reaction of 1H-pyrrole-2,3-diones with bifunctional amine-thiourea catalysts bearing multiple hydrogen-bond donors

• Ming-Liang Zhang,
• Deng-Feng Yue,
• Zhen-Hua Wang,
• Yuan Luo,
• Xiao-Ying Xu,
• Xiao-Mei Zhang and
• Wei-Cheng Yuan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 295–300, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.31

• 100049, China 10.3762/bjoc.12.31 Abstract For the first time, a catalytic asymmetric Henry reaction of 1H-pyrrole-2,3-diones was achieved with a chiral bifunctional amine-thiourea as a catalyst possessing multiple hydrogen-bond donors. With this developed method, a range of 3-hydroxy-3-nitromethyl-1H

• bifunctional multiple hydrogen-bond amine-thiourea-catalyzed Michael reaction of acetyl phosphonates with nitroolefins, giving a series of β-substituted nitro compounds with excellent stereoselectivity [34]. Therefore, as part of our research program aimed at establishing new methods for the construction of

• quaternary stereocenters [35][36][37], we envisioned that the Henry reaction of nitroalkanes with 1H-pyrrole-2,3-diones should take place with a chiral bifunctional amine-thiourea catalyst, leading to 3-hydroxy-3-nitromethyl-1H-pyrrol-2(3H)-ones bearing quaternary stereocenters (Scheme 1) [14]. Notably, this

Enabling technologies and green processes in cyclodextrin chemistry

• Giancarlo Cravotto,
• Marina Caporaso,
• Laszlo Jicsinszky and
• Katia Martina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 278–294, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.30

• ester in C-6 with thiourea followed by basic hydrolysis. The reaction gave the thiouronium salt after 1 h of irradiation at 100 °C while 20 h heating at 90 °C are required under conventional conditions [21]. While the previous experiments were performed in a multimode MW oven (MicroSynth-Milestone

A quadruple cascade protocol for the one-pot synthesis of fully-substituted hexahydroisoindolinones from simple substrates

• Hong-Bo Zhang,
• Yong-Chun Luo,
• Xiu-Qin Hu,
• Yong-Min Liang and
• Peng-Fei Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 253–259, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.27

• reactions, we also tested thiourea catalysts, cat-1 to cat-3. Interestingly, the thioureas cat-1 and cat-2 were able to promote the reaction (Table 1, entries 7 and 8), but we obtained an even better yield when the tertiary amine-thiourea cat-3 was used as the catalyst (Table 1, entry 9). All products were

Catalytic asymmetric formal synthesis of beraprost

• Yusuke Kobayashi,
• Ryuta Kuramoto and
• Yoshiji Takemoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 2654–2660, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.285

• . Amide 8 was similarly synthesized in 48% yield from 10. With the Michael precursors in hand, we next investigated the key AIOM reaction of 7 and 8 (Table 1). When the methylated substrate 7 was employed, the thiourea B [34][35] or benzothiadiazine C [33][36][37][38] catalysts efficiently promoted the

• reaction to furnish the dihydrobenzofuran 6 in 90% yield with high enantioselectivities (Table 1, entries 2 and 3). Conversely, thiourea A showed less catalytic activity, and the reaction required a much longer time for completion (Table 1, entry 1), indicating that the HB-donor moiety played an important

Bifunctional phase-transfer catalysis in the asymmetric synthesis of biologically active isoindolinones

• Antonia Di Mola,
• Maximilian Tiffner,
• Francesco Scorzelli,
• Laura Palombi,
• Rosanna Filosa,
• Paolo De Caprariis,
• Mario Waser and
• Antonio Massa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 2591–2599, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.279

• elaborations en route to the targets of medicinal interest (Figure 1). A high yield (usually >95%) and a maximum level of enantioselectivity of 74% ee were obtained but only in the presence of large amounts of cinchona alkaloid-based thiourea-containing organocatalysts (15 mol %) and after an unacceptably long

Tandem cross enyne metathesis (CEYM)–intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction (IMDAR). An easy entry to linear bicyclic scaffolds

• Javier Miró,
• María Sánchez-Roselló,
• Álvaro Sanz,
• Fernando Rabasa,
• Carlos del Pozo and
• Santos Fustero

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1486–1493, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.161

• tandem process (Table 1, entries 9 and 10). The use of Lewis acids as co-catalysts was also tested although the efficiency of the process did not improve neither with Ti(OiPr)4 nor with BF3·OEt2 (Table 1, entries 11 and 12). Alternatively, thiourea derivatives have proven to be very effective hydrogen

One-pot odourless synthesis of thioesters via in situ generation of thiobenzoic acids using benzoic anhydrides and thiourea

• Mohammad Abbasi and
• Reza Khalifeh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1265–1273, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.141

• the reaction of benzoic anhydrides, thiourea and various organic halides (primary, allylic, and benzylic) or structurally diverse, electron-deficient alkenes (ketones, esters, and nitriles) in the presence of Et3N has been developed. In this method, thiobenzoic acids were in situ generated from the

• reaction of thiourea with benzoic anhydrides, which were subjected to conjugate addition with electron-deficient alkenes or a nucleophilic displacement reaction with alkyl halides. Keywords: benzoic anhydride; Michael addition; nucleophilic displacement; thioester; thiourea; Introduction Thioesters have

• preparation of alkane thiols using thiourea and alkyl halides is a well-known reaction in organic synthesis. In addition, two methods for the synthesis of thioacids from acyl chlorides using N,N-dimethylthioformamide [51] or thioacetamide [52] have been reported. As far as we know, a similar reaction using

Diastereoselective and enantioselective conjugate addition reactions utilizing α,β-unsaturated amides and lactams

• Katherine M. Byrd

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 530–562, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.60

Sequence-specific RNA cleavage by PNA conjugates of the metal-free artificial ribonuclease tris(2-aminobenzimidazole)

• Friederike Danneberg,
• Alice Ghidini,
• Plamena Dogandzhiyski,
• Elisabeth Kalden,
• Roger Strömberg and
• Michael W. Göbel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 493–498, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.55

• approach towards tris(2-aminobenzimidazole), we adopted Lipton's method to the synthesis of aminobenzimidazoles. Thiourea 3 was prepared as described before [15], starting with the Boc-protection of tris(2-aminoethyl)amine (1) followed by the stepwise reaction of the free NH2 group of product 2 with

• thiocarbonyldiimidazole and methyl 3,4-diaminobenzoate (Scheme 2). The cyclisation to form the first benzimidazole unit was then achieved by reacting thiourea 3 with Mukaiyama’s reagent in the presence of NEt3 at rt yielding 88% of 4. Although the yield is slightly lower compared to the cyclisation with HgO (97% yield

• ), the mild and metal-free reaction conditions are a big advantage of this new method. For the subsequent two conversions, again the known procedures were used. Thiourea 6 was prepared by deprotection of 4 with SOCl2 in MeOH and addition of 2-nitrophenylisothiocyanate followed by reduction of the nitro

The unexpected influence of aryl substituents in N-aryl-3-oxobutanamides on the behavior of their multicomponent reactions with 5-amino-3-methylisoxazole and salicylaldehyde

• Volodymyr V. Tkachenko,
• Elena A. Muravyova,
• Sergey M. Desenko,
• Oleg V. Shishkin,
• Svetlana V. Shishkina,
• Dmytro O. Sysoiev,
• Thomas J. J. Müller and
• Valentin A. Chebanov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 3019–3030, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.320

• , Světlik et al. studied the Biginelli-type condensation of 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde with urea (thiourea) and dialkyl acetone-1,3-dicarboxylates as active methylene components [16]. Unexpectedly, the reaction with salicylaldehyde furnished two different products depending on the ester alkyl group (Scheme 2

• derivatives from salicylaldehyde, various dicarbonyl compounds, and urea (thiourea) using PdO as a catalyst (Scheme 2). Heterocyclizations involving both, salicylaldehyde and aminoazoles, are intriguing as well. Thus, for example in the course of the study on the application of 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole and

A one-pot multistep cyclization yielding thiadiazoloimidazole derivatives

• Debabrata Samanta,
• Anup Rana,
• Jan W. Bats and
• Michael Schmittel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 2989–2996, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.317

• Main, Germany 10.3762/bjoc.10.317 Abstract A versatile synthetic procedure is described to prepare the benzimidazole-fused 1,2,4-thiadiazoles 2a–c via a methanesulfonyl chloride initiated multistep cyclization involving the intramolecular reaction of an in-situ generated carbodiimide with a thiourea

• ://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/data_request/cif. The reagent used herein is a convenient one to prepare carbodiimides from thiourea derivatives [11][12][13]. Therefore, the reaction mechanism is envisioned to proceed via the initial formation of one carbodiimide unit in 3 (Scheme 2). The (N=C=N) unit experiences an

• intramolecular nucleophilic attack at its central, highly electrophilic carbon by the adjacent -NH- of the yet unreacted thiourea unit to produce 4 in a first cyclization step (cyclization-I). The second ring closure to generate the 1,2,4-thiadiazole ring may be assisted by one equivalent of methansulfonyl

One-pot functionalisation of N-substituted tetrahydroisoquinolines by photooxidation and tunable organometallic trapping of iminium intermediates

• Joshua P. Barham,
• Matthew P. John and
• John A. Murphy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 2981–2988, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.316

• volatilities of BrCCl3 and CHCl3 by removing them under vacuum and replacing the solvent. A solvent switch was also reported when photoredox activation of 4a was combined with thiourea-catalysed enantioselective alkylation [37]. The enantioselectivity of the thiourea-catalysed alkylation was optimal in non

Derivatives of the triaminoguanidinium ion, 3. Multiple N-functionalization of the triaminoguanidinium ion with isocyanates and isothiocyanates

• Jan Szabo,
• Kerstin Karger,
• Nicolas Bucher and
• Gerhard Maas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 2255–2262, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.234

• tris(thiourea) derivative, could result. With phenyl isothiocyanate and its 4-nitro derivative, however, 3-hydrazinyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole-5(4H)-thiones 10a,b were obtained as major products in 57 and 68% yield, respectively (Scheme 5). In the case of (4-nitrophenyl) isothiocyanate, the bis(arylthiourea

• Scheme 6. We assume that the reaction starts with the thiocarbamoylation of one of the benzyl-substituted amino functions of 3. Cyclization of the formed intermediate with participation of the thiourea-NH nitrogen gives rise to 1,2,4-triazole-5(4H)-thione 12 from which the major reaction product 10 is

Indium-mediated allylation in carbohydrate synthesis: A short and efficient approach towards higher 2-acetamido-2-deoxy sugars

• Christopher Albler,
• Ralph Hollaus,
• Hanspeter Kählig and
• Walther Schmid

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 2230–2234, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.231

• reaction furnished olefins 2a and 2b after acetylation in quantitative yield (Scheme 1). In the gluco-case a yield of 70% for 2c was obtained owing to incomplete consumption of the starting material 1c. Ozonolysis of the olefins 2 was performed using thiourea as reducing agent. Subsequently the generated 2

• , biologically active octodioses are now accessible from compounds 7b and 7c, which is subject of ongoing research. Functionalization of carbohydrates; reagents and conditions: (a) In, allyl bromide, EtOH/H2O, ultrasound, 2.5–7 h, then Ac2O/pyridine, DMAP, rt, 16 h, quant.; (b) O3, CH2Cl2, −78 °C then thiourea

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

• have excellent catalytic activities and enantioselectivities, only a few acyclic phosphines were effective. In this context, inspired by polyfunctional chiral small-molecule catalysts, particularly amino acid and thiourea-based systems [31][32], multifunctional chiral phosphines were constructed by

• to excellent yields. N-Alkyl-substituted maleimides were converted to cyclopentenes in high ee, while N-aryl-substituted maleimides underwent the reaction with low to moderate enantioselectivity. Using the multifunctional chiral phosphine G6, featuring a binaphthyl skeleton and bearing a thiourea

• imines. Based on thiourea-based catalyst systems, they developed the multifunctional catalyst H3 containing a phosphine fragment, a thiourea moiety, and an amino acid residue [67]. In the presence of 10 mol % of catalyst H3, with the assistance of triethylamine (5 mol %) and water (20 mol %), a wide

Photo, thermal and chemical degradation of riboflavin

• Muhammad Ali Sheraz,
• Sadia Hafeez Kazi,
• Sofia Ahmed,
• Zubair Anwar and
• Iqbal Ahmad

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1999–2012, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.208

• greatest stabilizing effect by disodium ethylenediamine (EDTA) (96.2%), followed by thiourea (88.2%), methylparaben (86.4%), DL-methionine (76.3%), sodium thiosulfate (72.9%), ribonucleic acid (59.3%) and reduced glutathione (26.2%). When RF solutions were exposed to a 40 W fluorescent light (Sylvania

Multicomponent reactions in nucleoside chemistry

• Mariola Koszytkowska-Stawińska and
• Włodzimierz Buchowicz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1706–1732, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.179

• ) consists in the three-component condensation of a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound, an aldehyde, and a nitrogen component, i.e., urea (X = O, R3 = H) or thiourea (X = S, R3 = H) [29]. The use of N-substituted derivatives of urea or thiourea (R3 ≠ H) has also been reported. Recently numerous advances in the

• system (Scheme 27) [98][99]. Attempts to replace the aldehyde 73a with its 3,4,6-hydroxylated counterpart failed to give the expected product [99]. Dwivedi et al. showed that the isopropylidene-protected sugars 75 reacted efficiently with urea (or thiourea) and 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds in diethylene

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

• diphenylphosphine to a range of nitroalkenes 56 has been described using a bifuntional Cinchona alkoid/thiourea catalyst 58 [132]. The catalyst 58 is able to simultaneously activate both the electrophilic and nucleophilic reagents. On one hand the thiourea presumably binds the nitro group while on the other hand

Towards allosteric receptors – synthesis of β-cyclodextrin-functionalised 2,2’-bipyridines and their metal complexes

• Christopher Kremer,
• Gregor Schnakenburg and
• Arne Lützen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 814–824, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.77

• protons of the bipyridine moiety that would indicate successful binding of the silver(I) ions to the nitrogen atoms. Thus, we conclude that the soft silver(I) ions rather bind to one of the sulfur atoms of the thiourea groups. This, however, does not cause the necessary conformational change of the

Staudinger ligation towards cyclodextrin dimers in aqueous/organic media. Synthesis, conformations and guest-encapsulation ability

• Malamatenia D. Manouilidou,
• Yannis G. Lazarou,
• Irene M. Mavridis and
• Konstantina Yannakopoulou

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 774–783, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.73

• couplings [16][23], the classical formation of ester [12][17], amide [25][26] or imide [27] bonds between CDs or amino CDs and acid- or anhydride-linkers, and finally urea/thiourea bonds [28][29]. However, the obvious advantages of the Staudinger ligation (high reaction rates, absence of a catalyst, aqueous

Secondary amine-initiated three-component synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidinones and thiones involving alkynes, aldehydes and thiourea/urea

• Jie-Ping Wan,
• Yunfang Lin,
• Kaikai Hu and
• Yunyun Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 287–292, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.25

• ] and enaminones [34]. On the other hand, as frequently utilized building blocks in organic synthesis, alkynes have been known to possess versatile reactivity in the synthesis of small molecules. For example, a previous protocol employing aryl alkynes, aldehydes and urea/thiourea has been found to

• use of the activation effect of a secondary amine to alkynes (Scheme 1) [37]. Results and Discussion The work began from the three-component model reaction of p-chlorobenzaldehyde (1a), thiourea (2a) and ethyl propiolate (3a). The optimization results are outlined in Table 1. Firstly, parallel studies

• higher yields than those containing an electron donating group (EDG) (Table 2, products 5a–5e, 5i–5k). A similar tendency occurred in the experiments using N-methyl thiourea (Table 2, products 5f–5h). Attempts on employing EDG-substituted aldehydes such as p-tolylaldehyde to react with N-substituted

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

• reaction of methyl acrylate with benzaldehyde the substituted triamide catalysts show a comparable or an even superior activity relative to the thiourea analogue. Recently, Gale et al. demonstrated that the same phosphoric triamides effectively act as anion transporters by hydrogen bonding [19]. These

• the nitro moiety with a bonding energy (ΔE) of 5.2 kcal/mol and a mean bond length NHurea–Onitrobenzene of 2.31 Å. Thiourea complex Ib forms slightly stronger hydrogen bonds to the NO2 moiety with a bonding energy of 6.5 kcal/mol, which is also reflected in the shorter mean bond length of NHthiourea

• –Onitrobenzene (2.19 Å). This is in accordance with the experimentally observed higher acidity [27] of thiourea over urea. Squaramide complex II forms the strongest hydrogen bonds of all computed motifs. The bond lengths NHsquaramide–Onitrobenzene are shortest with 2.11 Å while the bonding energy is highest (8.3