Ni-promoted reductive cyclization cascade enables a total synthesis of (+)-aglacin B

• Si-Chen Yao,
• Jing-Si Cao,
• Jian Xiao,
• Ya-Wen Wang and
• Yu Peng

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2548–2552, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.197

• Abstract The total synthesis of bioactive (+)-aglacin B was achieved. The key steps include an asymmetric conjugate addition reaction induced by a chiral auxiliary and a nickel-promoted reductive tandem cyclization of the elaborated β-bromo acetal, which led to the efficient construction of the

• relies on a non-photocatalysis approach. Results and Discussion Retrosynthetic analysis of (+)-aglacin B Based on the retrosynthetic analysis shown in Scheme 1, both C8′–C8 and C7–C1 bonds in (+)-aglacin B (2) could be constructed in one-step from the β-bromo acetal 5 by a Ni-promoted tandem radical

• cyclization, and a subsequent acetal reduction under acidic conditions then can complete the total synthesis of this molecule. The cyclization precursor 5 could be prepared from the primary alcohol 6 through transforming functional groups of the alkyl chain and installing an allyl group. It was envisioned

Recent advances in Norrish–Yang cyclization and dicarbonyl photoredox reactions for natural product synthesis

• Peng-Xi Luo,
• Jin-Xuan Yang,
• Shao-Min Fu and
• Bo Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2315–2333, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.177

• pyrrolidine-derived phenyl keto amide substrate 91 with blue LEDs produces the pyrrolidine-fused 4-oxazolidinone (N,O-acetal) 92, precluding preparation of the pyrrolidine analog of lycoplatyrine A (94) by this method. Compound 92 is presumably formed via either the radical mechanism [41] or possibly

C2 to C6 biobased carbonyl platforms for fine chemistry

• Jingjing Jiang,
• Muhammad Noman Haider Tariq,
• Florence Popowycz,
• Yanlong Gu and
• Yves Queneau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2103–2172, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.165

• conversion of a glycolaldehyde acetal (hydroxy acetal). The first step was the reaction of sodium benzyloxide with bromo acetals giving the hydroxy acetals in 75–82% yield. The intermediate ether was converted to the hydroxy acetal with sodium in liquid ammonia in good yield (70%). The hydroxy acetal then

• acetal as source of glycolaldehyde, two catalytic systems, namely Sc(OTf)3/nitromethane and Ni(ClO4)2·6H2O/acetonitrile, resulted in good yields. When using directly the aqueous solution of glycolaldehyde, these latter conditions were unproductive, whereas the deep eutectic solvent (DES) system FeCl3

• yield [83]. In their synthesis the cyclic acetal (2,5-diethoxy-1,4-dioxane-2,5-diyl)dimethanol or its dimethoxy analog was esterified with diphenyl phosphorochloridate in pyridine to give (2,5-diethoxy-1,4-dioxane-2,5-diyl)bis(methylene) tetraphenyl bis(phosphate). Subsequent removal of the phenyl

The application of desymmetric enantioselective reduction of cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds in the total synthesis of terpenoid and alkaloid natural products

• Dong-Xing Tan and
• Fu-She Han

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2085–2102, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.164

• intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction generated tricyclo[3.2.1.02,7]-octene 113. A two-step transformation including HAT hydrogenation and acetal C–H oxidation with RuCl3/NaIO4, 113 was converted into ketoester 114. The TFA-mediated C13–C15 bond cleavage of 114 proceed smoothly to give ring-opening products, which

Bioinspired total syntheses of natural products: a personal adventure

• Zhengyi Qin,
• Yuting Yang,
• Nuran Yan,
• Xinyu Liang,
• Zhiyu Zhang,
• Yaxuan Duan,
• Huilin Li and
• Xuegong She

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2048–2061, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.160

• reduction of ketone using SmI2 and propionaldehyde provided 15 diastereoselectively. Friedel–Crafts cyclization using trimethyl orthoformate and TMSOTf provided the cyclic acetal moiety to be oxidized with PDC, delivering the isocoumarin skeleton in 16. Chemoselective removal of the ester with the lactone

• Friedel–Crafts reaction. Next, the cyclohexadienone moiety could be activated by an acid to undergo a rearrangement reaction to provide eupomatilone. The exocyclic THF ring might exist as diverse forms such as hemiacetal, acetal, lactone or acetal-linked dimer. The (hemi)acetal moiety could generate an

Preparation of a furfural-derived enantioenriched vinyloxazoline building block and exploring its reactivity

• Madara Darzina,
• Anna Lielpetere and
• Aigars Jirgensons

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1737–1741, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.136

• conditions compatible with the double bond and acetal functions. In this work, we present Torii-type electrosynthesis of ester 3d (PG = Alloc) and its transformation to the enantioenriched vinyloxazoline building block 6, which can be used for the asymmetric synthesis of complex molecules [19][20][21][22][23

• electrolysis conditions and its removal was compatible with the double bond and acetal functions in ester 3d (see Supporting Information File 1 for attempts of other protecting groups such as Boc, Troc, and tfa). However, Pd-catalyzed N-Alloc deprotection induced isomerization of the double bond leading to the

• analogously from ester R-3d. Thus, Alloc was validated as non-expensive and relatively small N-protecting group, removal of which is compatible with double bond and acetal function of amides S-5 and R-5. The removal of the Pd catalyst at laboratory scale was done by chromatography. For large scale synthesis

Approaches to stereoselective 1,1'-glycosylation

• Daniele Zucchetta and
• Alla Zamyatina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1700–1718, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.133

• the formation of a five-membered tin-acetal ring in 32, which was subsequently glycosylated by the ʟ-lyxose imidate donor 33, containing a participating 1,2-trans-directing 2-O-Ac group to produce the β,α-1,1'-disaccharide 34 corresponding to the F and G rings of evernimicin (Scheme 3) [58

• that its sufficient acidity is key to the success of the reaction. Using the 2N-Troc-protected GlcN phosphite 44 as the donor and the 4,6-O-benzylidene acetal-protected 1,2-diol 45 as the acceptor afforded the β,α-disaccharide 46 with high stereoselectivity under borinic acid catalysis [62]. In

• , inseparable mixture of products (Scheme 7) [76]. The use of a torsional disarming 4,6-O-benzylidene acetal protecting group on both the N-phenytrifluoroacetimidate donor 81 and the lactol acceptor 82 led to a moderate improvement in glycosylation efficiency. A significant advancement was observed upon

Structural analysis of stereoselective galactose pyruvylation toward the synthesis of bacterial capsular polysaccharides

• Tsun-Yi Chiang,
• Mei-Huei Lin,
• Chun-Wei Chang,
• Jinq-Chyi Lee and
• Cheng-Chung Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1671–1677, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.131

• the foundational work of Kulkarni, Codée, Boons, and other outstanding groups in their studies on zwitterionic polysaccharides [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Pyruvylation of carbohydrate diols is commonly achieved through acetal substitution in the presence of acid during chemical synthesis. In this process

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

• protonate this basic fragment, undergo 1,3-addition leading to corresponding products of S,S-, O,S-, or N,S-acetal type. For example, trapping of the in situ-generated adamantanethione S-methanide (1a) with tert-butylthiol or benzyl alcohol leads to the corresponding S,S-dithioacetal and O,S-thioacetal

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

Optimized synthesis of aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals by omission of solubilizing alcohol cosolvents

• Julius Krenzer and
• Thomas J. J. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1201–1206, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.97

• 1 suggests starting from aroyl chlorides 2 and 2-methyl-N-benzylbenzothiazolium salts 3 by a condensation transform (Scheme 1). The condensation essentially represents an addition–elimination sequence that starts with the nucleophilic S,N-ketene acetal 4, in situ generated from substrate 3 by

• addition, since condensations are affected by the bimolecular addition as an elementary step, special attention to the concentration of the nucleophiles has to be paid. According to Mayr’s nucleophilicity scales [8][9][10], a nucleophilicity parameter N for the specific S,N-ketene acetal intermediate 4 can

• estimated from parameters for enamines (N = 10–16), cyclic N,N-ketene acetals (N = 18–20) [11][12] , and the deoxy-Breslow intermediate (N =15.6) [13]. The nucleophilicity of S,N-ketene acetal 4 clearly exceeds that of ethanol (N = 7.4). In addition, triethylamine is more nucleophilic (N = 17.30 in

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

• acetal in the presence of Hoveyda–Grubbs’ second-generation catalyst, affording aldehyde 112 in 75% yield as the E-isomer after a careful acidic workup. Finally, HWE olefination of aldehyde 112 with (EtO)2P(O)CHBrCN completed the synthesis of fragment 62b of borrelidin. Minnaard and Madduri emphasized

Gold extraction at the molecular level using α- and β-cyclodextrins

• Susana Santos Braga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1116–1125, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.89

• that contributes to the overall aqueous solubility and stability of AuCl4−. The precipitation method, according to the authors, is postulated to involve acid hydrolysis of the acetal group of thiolated β-CD to form a reactive aldehyde that takes part in the reduction of the Au3+ cations that get bound

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

• achieved by using (R)-BTM (19), furnishing acetate 18 with satisfactory efficiency and enantioselectivity (37% yield, 85% ee). Finally, iodination of 18 employing Johnsen’s protocol (I2, pyridine) [39] provided α-iodoenone 13 in 89% yield. On the other hand, the synthesis of acetal aldehyde 14 commenced with

• oxidative cleavage [47] was applied to deliver aldehyde 29. Finally, a one-pot acetalization and desilylation effectively afforded the acetal alcohol, which was then oxidized with the aid of TPAP, furnishing acetal aldehyde 14 in 67% yield over two steps. With the two fragments 13 and 14 in hand, the next

Photochemically assisted synthesis of phenacenes fluorinated at the terminal benzene rings and their electronic spectra

• Yuuki Ishii,
• Minoru Yamaji,
• Fumito Tani,
• Kenta Goto,
• Yoshihiro Kubozono and
• Hideki Okamoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 670–679, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.53

• napthalene-1,5-dicarboxaldehyde was protected as an acetal, was prepared through a 5-step reaction sequence. Phosphonium salt 5 [39] and the partly protected o-phthalaldehyde 6 [47] were obtained by previously reported procedures. The reaction of phosphonium salt 5 with aldehyde 6 in the presence of KOH and

• catalytic amount of I2 under an aerated condition. After the photolysis, the acetal moiety was partly cleaved to produce a mixture of acetal 9 and aldehyde 10. The obtained reaction mixture was treated with TsOH in acetone to afford desired fluorinated phenanthrenecarbaldehyde 10 in moderate yield (46% from

Total synthesis of (±)-simonsol C using dearomatization as key reaction under acidic conditions

• Xiao-Yang Bi,
• Xiao-Shuai Yang,
• Shan-Shan Chen,
• Jia-Jun Sui,
• Zhao-Nan Cai,
• Yong-Ming Chuan and
• Hong-Bo Qin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 601–606, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.47

• scaffold of simonsol C, utilizing an alkaline dearomatization as the key reaction, followed by a functional-group-selective Wittig reaction and concurrent oxy-Michael addition [6]. A bromophenol acetal was used in the intramolecular alkylative dearomatization, which was first reported by Magnus et al. [8

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

• are linear molecules able to direct functionality toward each other in a relatively rigid pincer orientation. One example featuring a pair of antipodal carboxylic acids demonstrated acetal hydrolysis catalysis (Figure 3B) [110]. However, as linear molecules, the clefts are difficult to develop past

• triad (red) was hoped to activate the benzyl alcohol nucleophile, but it does not activate (polarize) the electrophile (substrate ester group). (B) One of Rebek’s “clefts” [108][109]. The rigidly organized carboxylic acids both bind the substrate and the transition state for hydrolysis of an acetal. (A

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

• could be orthogonally deprotected in the presence of a wide range of other protecting groups like acetyl, benzoyl, acetal, and methoxymethyl [131]. It has been even applied for the first total synthesis of telophiose A [132]. The stereoselectivity and yield obtained in the presence of the PhCar group

• 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

Synthesis of disulfides and 3-sulfenylchromones from sodium sulfinates catalyzed by TBAI

• Zhenlei Zhang,
• Ying Wang,
• Xingxing Pan,
• Manqi Zhang,
• Wei Zhao,
• Meng Li and
• Hao Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 253–261, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.17

• -hydroxyacetophenone and N,N-dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal (DMF-DMA) were reacted at 120 °C to give compound 3a, and without further isolation and purification, 1a, H2SO4 and TBAI were added directly to the reaction solution and the reaction was continued at 120 °C for 12 hours. In this way, the product 4a could

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

4,6-Diaryl-5,5-difluoro-1,3-dioxanes as chiral dopants for liquid crystal compositions

• Maurice Médebielle,
• Peer Kirsch,
• Jérémy Merad,
• Carolina von Essen,
• Clemens Kühn and
• Andreas Ruhl

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2940–2945, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.246

• potential chiral dopants. Our long-term goal would be to provide a structure–property relationship of this class of molecules by i) modification of the aryl and ii) and/or acetal moieties (Scheme 1) and to elucidate the possible role of fluorine on their physical properties, with comparison to their non

N-Glycosides of indigo, indirubin, and isoindigo: blue, red, and yellow sugars and their cancerostatic activity

• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2840–2869, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.240

• -galactose and subsequent perbenzoylation afforded an anomeric mixture (α:β = 87:13) of tribenzoyl-4,6-benzylidene-ᴅ-galactose from which the pure α-anomer 10a was separated (Scheme 6) [20]. Cleavage of the acetal and subsequent regioselective replacement of the hydroxy group OH-6 with an iodide by

Synthesis of tricarbonylated propargylamine and conversion to 2,5-disubstituted oxazole-4-carboxylates

• Kento Iwai,
• Akari Hikasa,
• Kotaro Yoshioka,
• Shinki Tani,
• Kazuto Umezu and
• Nagatoshi Nishiwaki

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2827–2833, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.238

• ,O-acetal derived from diethyl mesoxalate (DEMO) undergoes elimination of acetic acid upon treatment with a base, leading to the formation of N-acylimine in situ. Lithium acetylide readily attacks the imino group to afford N,1,1-tricarbonylated propargylamines. When the resulting propargylamine

• nucleophiles to synthesize PCPAs, and their ring closures were also investigated. Results and Discussion NAI 2 can be generated by treating N,O-acetal 1 with a base, such as triethylamine. However, the addition of an amine was omitted because lithium acetylide functions both as nucleophile and base. When 1a

• -4200 spectrometer equipped with an ATM detector. High-resolution mass spectra (HRMS) were obtained with a Bruker compact mass spectrometer APCI–TOF set at positive mode. The melting point was measured on an SRS-OptiMelt automated melting point system. Preparation of N,O-acetal 1 In a manner analogous

Transition-metal-free synthesis of arylboronates via thermal generation of aryl radicals from triarylbismuthines in air

• Yuki Yamamoto,
• Yuki Konakazawa,
• Kohsuke Fujiwara and
• Akiya Ogawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2577–2584, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.216

• resulted in the low conversion. This system could be applied to the unstable dimethyl acetal-substituted triphenylbismuthine 1f, and 3f was obtained in 51% yield. Interestingly, the use of triarylbismuthines 1i and 1j with strong electron-withdrawing groups such as trifluoromethyl and formyl groups was

Asymmetric organocatalytic synthesis of chiral homoallylic amines

• Nikolay S. Kondratyev and
• Andrei V. Malkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2349–2377, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.201

• requires 18 hours (Scheme 16). A proposed catalytic cycle is shown in Scheme 17. In this reaction, the aromatic acetal 80 gives rise to a hydrogen-bonded triflate 82 and oxocarbenium ion 81. The latter quickly reacts with BocNH2 forming the ArCH=HN+-Boc iminium–triflate ion pair 83. Notably, the attack of

• . In the optimisation of the catalyst 78 structure, several important observations were made (Scheme 19). Replacing thiourea (91) as the H-bond donor unit with squaramide (93) or urea (92) did not affect the enantioselectivity of the allylation of the benzaldehyde-derived acetal. On the other hand

• the aromatic group of the substrate had a significant contribution to the stereoselectivity of the reaction. The reaction demonstrated a broad scope both in the acetal 98 and in the allylsilane (Scheme 20). A high enantioselectivity was achieved even with the non-aromatic 1-cyclohexene-1