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

• devoted to dimethyl sulfoxide, dihalomethanes, hexamethylene tetramine, and glyoxylates as C1-building blocks, substituting formaldehyde. Review Methanol as a source of formaldehyde There are several reports on the use of alcohols under oxidative conditions as aldehyde surrogates in Ugi and Passerini

Asymmetric synthesis of β-amino cyanoesters with contiguous tetrasubstituted carbon centers by halogen-bonding catalysis with chiral halonium salt

• Yasushi Yoshida,
• Maho Aono,
• Takashi Mino and
• Masami Sakamoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 547–555, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.43

• , Chiba 263-8522, Japan 10.3762/bjoc.21.43 Abstract β-Amino cyanoesters are important scaffolds because they can be transformed into useful chiral amines, amino acids, and amino alcohols. Halogen bonding, which can be formed between halogen atoms and electron-rich chemical species, is attractive because

• alcohols [38]. In this context, their asymmetric syntheses are important and have also been researched mainly using chiral catalysts [39][40]. Previously, the Mannich reaction has been applied in the construction of contiguous stereogenic centers (Figure 2). In 2005, Jørgensen and co-workers reported the

Vinylogous functionalization of 4-alkylidene-5-aminopyrazoles with methyl trifluoropyruvates

• Judit Hostalet-Romero,
• Laura Carceller-Ferrer,
• Gonzalo Blay,
• Amparo Sanz-Marco,
• José R. Pedro and
• Carlos Vila

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 533–540, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.41

• between 4-alkylidene-5-aminopyrazoles and alkyl trifluoropyruvates leading to highly functionalized tertiary alcohols bearing a trifluoromethyl group and a pyrazole ring is presented. The corresponding trifluoromethyl alcohols are obtained in moderate to good yields (up to 80%) and high

• diastereoselectivity (up to 7:1). Keywords: alcohols; diastereoselectivity; nitrogen heterocycles; pyrazoles; vinylogous reaction; Introduction Vinylogy refers to the transmission of electronic effects through a conjugated π-system, enabling the extension of a functional group's nucleophilic or electrophilic

• compounds is a significant and important reaction for the selective synthesis of homoallylic alcohols in an efficient and sustainable way [2][3]. As carbonyl compounds, alkyl trifluoropyruvates [4][5] are an interesting class of compounds that have been used in addition reactions of different nucleophiles

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

• )-10. Synthesis of the aggregation pheromone of Tribolium castaneum. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 6: General information, synthesis of compounds 1–12, research on the optical purity of chiral alcohols (R)- and (S)-4, and copies of 1H, 13C and 19F NMR spectra. Funding This

Synthesis of electrophile-tethered preQ₁ analogs for covalent attachment to preQ₁ RNA

• Laurin Flemmich and
• Ronald Micura

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 483–489, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.35

• . First, the alkyl handles bearing a primary hydroxy group were introduced and then converted into the electrophile of choice. More specifically, to furnish compounds 4b–d, precursor 9 was treated with the corresponding amino alcohols in the presence of a desiccant. The imines formed were subjected to

• mild reduction with methanolic sodium borohydride. Upon purification by reversed-phase chromatography using aqueous hydrobromic acid as eluent (0.5% in H2O), a considerable fraction of the alcohols was already converted to the desired bromides 4c,d. Only in the case of 4b, no deoxygenative bromination

Organocatalytic kinetic resolution of 1,5-dicarbonyl compounds through a retro-Michael reaction

• James Guevara-Pulido,
• Fernando González-Pérez,
• José M. Andrés and
• Rafael Pedrosa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 473–482, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.34

• processes with low catalyst loading. It involves the kinetic resolution of alcohols, amines, and esters using chiral phosphoric acids [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] and sulfoximines with enals using chiral N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalysts [14]. Additionally, these processes have been conducted using

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

• exposing fresh material to light. In 2016, König and co-workers exploited rod milling to develop a photomechanochemical approach for the riboflavin tetraacetate (RFTA)-catalyzed photocatalytic oxidation of alcohols to the corresponding carbonyl compounds upon irradiation with five LEDs (λ = 455 nm) [69

• oxidation of alcohols. The photos in Scheme 6 were reproduced from [69] (© 2016 M. Obst et al., published by Beilstein-Institut, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Photomechanochemical oxidation of 1,2

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

• the extremes of SN1 and SN2 pathway by employing the effect of counter ions, showing close resemblance with the SNi mechanism [41], conforming to the famous Winstein’s ion-pair theory [42] and draws analogy with chlorination of alcohols by thionyl chloride [43]. Incorporating the role of counter ion

Red light excitation: illuminating photocatalysis in a new spectrum

• Lucas Fortier,
• Corentin Lefebvre and
• Norbert Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 296–326, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.22

• organoboron substrates 31, including -B(OH)2, -Bpin, -BF3K, and -Bneo (neopentyl borate) derivatives noted as “-[B]” in Scheme 11, to produce aliphatic alcohols and phenols 32 with moderate to excellent yields. The versatility of this method is highlighted by the broad substrate scope of more than 50 examples

• , which includes various aryl- and alkylboronates, showcasing its applicability across a range of chemical transformations. For example, phenylboronic acids with diverse substitution patterns (such as electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups) were smoothly converted to the corresponding alcohols

• alcohols 32. Notably, this protocol is both energy-efficient and operationally simple, with the reaction being carried out under air in ethanol, a low-toxicity solvent. Moreover, the scalability of the reaction was demonstrated with larger-scale experiments (up to 5 mmol), achieving excellent yields and

Dioxazolones as electrophilic amide sources in copper-catalyzed and -mediated transformations

• Seungmin Lee,
• Minsuk Kim,
• Hyewon Han and
• Jongwoo Son

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 200–216, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.12

• conventionally challenging functionalizations, such as N- or O-arylations using aryl halides [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] or arylboronic acids [39][40][41][42], hydrofunctionalizations of unsaturated motifs [25][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56], the oxidation of alcohols [57

Cu(OTf)₂-catalyzed multicomponent reactions

• Sara Colombo,
• Camilla Loro,
• Egle M. Beccalli,
• Gianluigi Broggini and
• Marta Papis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 122–145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.7

• cascade reaction for the preparation of α-alkoxy-N-alkyltriazoles 44 that was developed starting from aliphatic aldehydes, alcohols, TMSN3 as azide source and alkynes (Scheme 33) [52]. The reaction occurs under mild conditions in acetonitrile at room temperature but is inhibited when using aromatic

• aldehydes and phenols. The mechanism involves the reaction of the azide with the hemiacetal XLII generated in situ from the aldehydes and alcohols, followed by coupling with the alkynes to form the triazole ring. Both, copper triflate and copper metal are essential for the success of the reaction. On the

Recent advances in organocatalytic atroposelective reactions

• Henrich Szabados and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 55–121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.6

• prochiral 2-aryloxyisophthalaldehydes 57a,b with a range of aliphatic and aromatic alcohols 58a–g, as well as heteroaromatic amines 60 (Scheme 19). Chiral diaryl ethers of this type received increased attention lately. Biju, Gao, Zhang, and Zeng groups all reported high degrees of yields and

• enantioselectivity during the nucleophilic addition, and the subsequent aromatization completes central-to-axial chirality conversion delivering products 68. Dynamic kinetic resolution of naphthylindoles 69 was performed by reaction with bulky electrophiles such as azodicarboxylates 70 or o-hydroxybenzyl alcohols 72

• of products in low to satisfactory yields, but having high enantiomeric purities. An organocatalytic asymmetric (3 + 2) cyclization of 3-arylindoles 154 with either achiral 155 or racemic 157 propargylic alcohols was reported by Wu et al. (Scheme 46) [74]. Utilizing CPA C37 with 3-arylindoles 154 and

Non-covalent organocatalyzed enantioselective cyclization reactions of α,β-unsaturated imines

• Sergio Torres-Oya and
• Mercedes Zurro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3221–3255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.268

• dihydropyridinones 49 and 51 in moderate to good yields (45–76%), excellent diastereoselectivities and high enantioselectivities (85–94% ee) (Scheme 18). The reaction was also compatible with 1,1-dialkyl-substituted 3-amidoallylic alcohols 50 as precursors of α,β-unsaturated N–H ketimines; in this case the chiral

Synthesis of 2H-azirine-2,2-dicarboxylic acids and their derivatives

• Anastasiya V. Agafonova,
• Mikhail S. Novikov and
• Alexander F. Khlebnikov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3191–3197, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.264

• a 4 mmol scale gave dimethyl ester 11a in 99% yield. Unexpectedly, the reaction of branched alcohols with diacyl chloride 2a failed. For example, the reaction with benzyl alcohol resulted in the formation of an overly complex mixture of products. Adding bases to trap HCl did not improve the

• reaction of more branched alcohols failed. Such esters could be prepared from the dicarboxylic acids using traditional activation or OH-insertion reaction of carbenes formed by irradiation of the appropriate diazo compound. Approaches to 2H-azirine-2,2-dicarboxylic acid derivatives. Synthesis of 2H-azirine

Hypervalent iodine-mediated intramolecular alkene halocyclisation

• Charu Bansal,
• Oliver Ruggles,
• Albert C. Rowett and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3113–3133, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.258

• nucleophiles In 2000, Hara and co-workers reported the fluorocyclisation of unsaturated alcohols and carboxylic acids promoted by HVI reagents (Scheme 11) [36]. Using 4-tolyl difluoroiodane 10 as the reaction promoter, and pyridine·6HF as a source of fluoride, a range of unsaturated alcohols 23 to fluorinated

• tetrahydrofurans 25 and tetrahydropyrans 26. Unsaturated carboxylic acids 24 was also cyclised to form 5-membered fluorinated lactones 27. The mechanisms proposed for the cyclisation of unsaturated alcohols and carboxylic acids both proceed first through the activation of the alkene by the iodane (Scheme 11). The

• the oxyfluorination of alkenes in 2015 [31]. Under identical conditions to the aminofluorination using 1-fluoro-3,3-dimethylbenziodoxole (12) with Zn(BF4)2 catalyst, unsaturated alcohols were cyclised to fluorinated tetrahydropyrans 26 and oxepanes 28 (Scheme 12) in 1–2 hours in good yields. Gulder

Enantioselective regiospecific addition of propargyltrichlorosilane to aldehydes catalyzed by biisoquinoline N,N’-dioxide

• Noble Brako,
• Sreerag Moorkkannur Narayanan,
• Amber Burns,
• Layla Auter,
• Valentino Cesiliano,
• Rajeev Prabhakar and
• Norito Takenaka

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3069–3076, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.255

• systematic catalyst structure–reactivity and selectivity relationship study. The observed catalyst structure–enantioselectivity relationship of the present allenylation reaction was found exactly opposite to that of the analogous allylation reaction. The method provided eleven α-allenic alcohols in 22–99

• ; Introduction Enantioenriched α-allenic alcohols are an important class of chiral building blocks used for the chemical synthesis of biologically relevant molecules [1][2][3][4][5]. Their strength comes from the rich synthetic versatility [6][7][8][9] and biological relevance [10] of the allene functionality

• . Accordingly, the development of efficient access to optically active chiral α-allenic alcohols continues to be of significant interest in organic chemistry [11][12][13]. The asymmetric catalytic addition of allenylation reagents to aldehydes provides direct access to chiral α-allenic alcohols in an

Advances in radical peroxidation with hydroperoxides

• Oleg V. Bityukov,
• Pavel Yu. Serdyuchenko,
• Andrey S. Kirillov,
• Gennady I. Nikishin,
• Vera A. Vil’ and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2959–3006, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.249

• further attacked by TBHP to give product 61. Benzyl alcohols 62 were also converted into tert-butyl perbenzoates 63 under the action of the TBAI/TBHP system (Scheme 22) [65][66]. During the process, TBHP oxidizes TBAI into iodine, which reacts with the second TBHP to generate tert-butylperoxy radical B

• , which is captured by TBHP. Pathway II: the recombination of the C-centered radical C and tert-butylperoxy radical B. The three-component approach to 4-(tert-butylperoxy)-5-phenyloxazol-2(3H)-ones 82 from benzyl alcohols 80 and isocyanates 81 using the Cu(II)/TBHP system was developed (Scheme 29) [76

• provides radical E. tert-Butylperoxy group transfer from Co(III)OO-t-Bu A to E gives the coupling product F, which gives the final three-component product 118 and releases the Co(II) catalyst. A copper(0)- and cobalt(II)-catalyzed difunctionalization of enynes 119 with the sp3 α-carbon of alcohols 120 and

Synthesis of fluorinated acid-functionalized, electron-rich nickel porphyrins

• Mike Brockmann,
• Jonas Lobbel,
• Lara Unterriker and
• Rainer Herges

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2954–2958, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.248

• converted into the methyl esters 10 (54%), 11 (52%), and 12 (46%). The benzyl-protecting group was removed hydrogenolytically to give products 13 (85%), 14 (65%), and 15 (99%). The alcohols were then converted to the triflates 16 (28%), 17 (41%), and 18 (63%). We have chosen 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzaldehyde (19

Recent advances in transition-metal-free arylation reactions involving hypervalent iodine salts

• Ritu Mamgain,
• Kokila Sakthivel and
• Fateh V. Singh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2891–2920, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.243

Mechanochemical difluoromethylations of ketones

• Jinbo Ke,
• Pit van Bonn and
• Carsten Bolm

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2799–2805, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.235

• the gas phase than in solution [32][33], it has remained a challenge to control such reactions. Our group has recently reported a mechanochemical difluoromethylation of primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols [34], yielding products with difluoromethoxy groups, which are promising organofluorine

• compounds [35][36][37][38]. Notably, also sterically hindered alcohols, which are typically less reactive in solution, could be applied under solvent-free conditions in a ball mill [39], which was attributed to a better accessibility of the difluorocarbene in the mechanochemical environment [40]. Motivated

• reaction conditions were chosen based on those reported by Ni, Hu and co-workers for the difluoromethylation of alcohols in solution [39]. The two activators KFHF and KOAc were investigated in a dichloromethane/water mixture at room temperature for 10 h. In both cases, the yield of 3a was negligible (with

Access to optically active tetrafluoroethylenated amines based on [1,3]-proton shift reaction

• Yuta Kabumoto,
• Eiichiro Yoshimoto,
• Bing Xiaohuan,
• Masato Morita,
• Motohiro Yasui,
• Shigeyuki Yamada and
• Tsutomu Konno

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2776–2783, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.233

• diastereomers 12 and 13 are often easily separable, and each diastereomer of optically active alcohols or amines can be obtained with an excellent optical purity (reactions 3 and 4 in Scheme 1). To the best of our knowledge, these are the only four works for the preparation of optically active substances having

Synthesis of fluoroalkenes and fluoroenynes via cross-coupling reactions using novel multihalogenated vinyl ethers

• Yukiko Karuo,
• Keita Hirata,
• Atsushi Tarui,
• Kazuyuki Sato,
• Kentaro Kawai and
• Masaaki Omote

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2691–2703, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.226

• fluorine-containing building blocks have been developed [21][22][23][24][25]. Jubault and Poisson et al. reported SN2’ reactions of hydride or alcohols to electrophilic fluorine-containing alkenes gave the corresponding fluoroalkenes (Scheme 1B) [21]. In recent years, many fluorine-containing coupling

Transition-metal-free decarbonylation–oxidation of 3-arylbenzofuran-2(3H)-ones: access to 2-hydroxybenzophenones

• Bhaskar B. Dhotare,
• Seema V. Kanojia,
• Chahna K. Sakhiya,
• Amey Wadawale and
• Dibakar Goswami

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2655–2667, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.223

• synthetic route. Results and Discussion Initially, 3-arylbenzofuran-2(3H)-ones 3aa–ma were prepared following a SbCl3-catalyzed Friedel–Crafts alkylation of phenols 1a–m with benzylic alcohols 2a–d, earlier reported by us (Scheme 1) [21][22][23]. All the synthesized 3-arylbenzofuran-2(3H)-ones were

The scent gland composition of the Mangshan pit viper, Protobothrops mangshanensis

• Jonas Holste,
• Paul Weldon,
• Donald Boyer and
• Stefan Schulz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2644–2654, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.222

• -hexadecylglycerol, as well as other common long-chain alcohols and amides. Although a general defensive function has been proposed for snake abdominal scent glands, the specific chemistry and moderate amounts of acids reported here may suggest a function in chemical signaling for the Mangshan pit viper. In addition

• (see, e.g., [1][2]). Comparative analysis of SGS through GC–MS has revealed an assortment of lipids (reviewed in [2]), such as cholesterol [3][4][5][6][7][8], carboxylic acids [4][5][7][8][9][10][11][12], alcohols [8], 1-O-monoalkylglycerols [6][8], and others [13]. Nitrogen-containing compounds

• components, carboxylic acids, alcohols, glycerol ethers, amides, and volatile compounds such as phenol, benzaldehyde, or indole were present (Figure 1 and Table 1). While some of these compounds were easily identified, a group of diketopiperazines (DKPs) and a series of unknown putative carboxylic acids (A–F

A review of recent advances in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical late-stage functionalization classified by anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, and paired electrolysis

• Nian Li,
• Ruzal Sitdikov,
• Ajit Prabhakar Kale,
• Joost Steverlynck,
• Bo Li and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2500–2566, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.214

• activate alcohols presents a significant synthetic challenge. The carbazate substrates are easily prepared from ubiquitous alcohol precursors. The first stage of the transformation involves the sequential anodic oxidation of the carbazate and subsequent deprotonation to form a diazenecarboxylate. Further

• method for the formation of C–S bonds [25]. This method achieves the difunctionalization of a carbon atom by reacting isocyanide 2-isocyanoacetate with a thiophenol and an alcohol. The scope is very broad for thiophenols, alcohols, and isocyanides, and even alkyl thiols are compatible. In addition to

• aliphatic alcohols, benzyl alcohols are also suitable reagents. Numerous LSF examples and upscaling were demonstrated. The mechanism involves two anodic oxidations: first, the thiophenol is oxidized at the anode, forming a sulfur radical that attacks the isocyanide. The newly formed carbon radical is then