Recent advances in synthetic approaches for bioactive cinnamic acid derivatives

• Betty A. Kustiana,
• Galuh Widiyarti and
• Teni Ernawati

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1031–1086, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.85

Pd-Catalyzed asymmetric allylic amination with isatin using a P,olefin-type chiral ligand with C–N bond axial chirality

• Natsume Akimoto,
• Kaho Takaya,
• Yoshio Kasashima,
• Kohei Watanabe,
• Yasushi Yoshida and
• Takashi Mino

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1018–1023, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.83

• synthesis of spirocyclic compounds [1][2][3]. The nucleophilicity of isatin at the nitrogen atom allows it to participate in reactions such as alkylation [4], arylation [5], and aza-Michael addition [6][7][8]. However, the products obtained from these reactions are primarily achiral or racemic, and only a

Recent total synthesis of natural products leveraging a strategy of enamide cyclization

• Chun-Yu Mi,
• Jia-Yuan Zhai and
• Xiao-Ming Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 999–1009, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.81

• cephalotaxine, cephalezomine H, (−)-cephalotaxine, (−)-cephalotine B, (−)-fortuneicyclidin A, (−)-fortuneicyclidin B, and (−)-cephalocyclidin A. Unlike enamines, tertiary enamides can participate in cyclization reactions initial as nucleophiles, and upon protonation, alkenylation, or alkylation, the resultant

Studies on the syntheses of β-carboline alkaloids brevicarine and brevicolline

• Benedek Batizi,
• Patrik Pollák,
• András Dancsó,
• Péter Keglevich,
• Gyula Simig,
• Balázs Volk and
• Mátyás Milen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 955–963, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.79

• hydrogenation of the C=C double bond in the side chain gave brevicarine (2). The first total synthesis of brevicarine is shown in Scheme 3 [2][20][21]. Condensation of indole (11) with 1-methylpiperidone (12) gave compound 13 [22]. N-Alkylation of 13 with benzyl bromide, followed by treatment of the quaternary

• -monomethylation of the primary amino group of compound 25 by alkylation with methyl iodide or by Eschweiler–Clarke reductive amination with formaldehyde and formic acid were unsuccessful, because the dimethylated byproduct was also formed, even when one equivalent alkylating agent was used. Finally, our efforts

Cu–Bpin-mediated dimerization of 4,4-dichloro-2-butenoic acid derivatives enables the synthesis of densely functionalized cyclopropanes

• Patricia Gómez-Roibás,
• Andrea Chaves-Pouso and
• Martín Fañanás-Mastral

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 877–883, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.71

• organoboron compound with CuOt-Bu and subsequent SN2’-selective allylic alkylation of 1. The densely functionalized structure of these dimerization products offers a versatile synthetic handle for further chemoselective functionalization. Considering the presence of two enolizable esters together with the

Synthesis of HBC fluorophores with an electrophilic handle for covalent attachment to Pepper RNA

• Raphael Bereiter and
• Ronald Micura

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 727–735, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.56

• have shown that this feature can be exploited to construct a covalent bond between the fluorophore and the RNA by replacing the N-hydroxyethyl group of the dye with an electrophilic handle, resulting in efficient RNA alkylation at the N7 of G41 [11]. Synthesis and evaluation of Pepper dyes with an

• electrophilic handle In analogy to the reported synthesis of HBC [7], we first developed a route to generate a series of HBC derivatives with N-(bromoalkyl) handles of different lengths (Scheme 2), with the intention of optimizing the RNA alkylation reaction for high yields. The synthesis starts with a

• containing potassium and magnesium ions at a physiological pH of 7.0 for 5 hours. Analysis of the reaction mixture by anion-exchange HPLC revealed that the bromopropyl handle (C3 homolog 8) gave the highest yield of covalently tethered HBC-RNA complex (50%). Significantly less RNA alkylation yield was

Asymmetric synthesis of fluorinated derivatives of aromatic and γ-branched amino acids via a chiral Ni(II) complex

• Maurizio Iannuzzi,
• Thomas Hohmann,
• Michael Dyrks,
• Kilian Haoues,
• Katarzyna Salamon-Krokosz and
• Beate Koksch

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 659–669, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.52

• hectogram range, is a major strength of this method. In this context, Han et al. could show that the trifluorinated variant of α-aminobutyric acid, trifluoroethylglycine (TfeGly), can be synthesized on a 100 g scale with great enantiomeric purity [8]. The critical step here is the alkylation of the Ni(II

• , base, solvent, and reagent equivalents to optimize the alkylation reaction for both bromides 4 and 5 (Table 1 and Table 2). For Ni(II) complex of [2.3.5.6F]TfMePhe (6), firstly we screened different inorganic and organic bases (Table 1, entries 1–3) and 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) was

• fluorinated alkyl iodide precursor 10, the corresponding alkylation reaction with the Ni(II) complex 1 was conducted under previously optimized conditions for the synthesis of Fmoc-TfIle [13] in terms of base (NaH) and solvent (DMF) and thoroughly screened in terms of base equivalents, concentration and

Recent advances in allylation of chiral secondary alkylcopper species

• Minjae Kim,
• Gwanggyun Kim,
• Doyoon Kim,
• Jun Hee Lee and
• Seung Hwan Cho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 639–658, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.51

• asymmetric allylic alkylation (AAA) has been remarkable since its initial development in 1995, when Bäckvall and van Koten first reported moderate enantioselectivity using Grignard reagents with allylic acetates [21][22]. This discovery triggered extensive research endeavors, significantly expanding the

• largely depends on the choice of the nucleophilic organometallic species (Scheme 2). For example, the asymmetric copper-catalyzed allylic alkylation utilizing organometallic species 5 bearing a primary carbon–metal bond predominantly constructs the stereogenic center derived from electrophiles. The

• low configurational stability of the chiral secondary organometallic 9 and organocopper species 10 [38]. Therefore, the development of a more broadly applicable catalytic system that could accomplish copper-catalyzed stereoselective allylic alkylation with chiral secondary nucleophiles represents a

Entry to 2-aminoprolines via electrochemical decarboxylative amidation of N‑acetylamino malonic acid monoesters

• Olesja Koleda,
• Janis Sadauskis,
• Darja Antonenko,
• Edvards Janis Treijs,
• Raivis Davis Steberis and
• Edgars Suna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 630–638, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.50

• also suitable as nucleophiles for the cyclization into 2-aminoproline and 2-aminopipecolic acid derivatives 6 (Figure 2, reaction 3). The starting disubstituted malonic esters are readily available by C-alkylation of inexpensive and readily available diethyl acetamidomalonate, followed by

• in three steps (62% overall yield) from commercially available diethyl acetamidomalonate by an alkylation/hydrolysis/Boc-cleavage sequence (Scheme 1). The development of decarboxylative amidation commenced by examining the published conditions for anodic decarboxylation/etherification [4

Photocatalyzed elaboration of antibody-based bioconjugates

• Marine Le Stum,
• Eugénie Romero and
• Gary A. Molander

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 616–629, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.49

• sulfhydryls can be conjugated by several means, including alkylation with α-halo carbonyls (in which case Lys may compete), and Michael additions (e.g., to maleimide, which is reversible and therefore may lead to incomplete conversion). The Michael adducts also present chemical instability in plasma and

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

• ] and has been used in syntheses of natural products containing aryl quaternary carbon centers [9][10]. Unlike the intramolecular alkylation strategy of a phenol derivative, which can only be applied in basic dearomatization reactions, our approach using an α-iodophenol ether as precursor of the

• oxy-Michael addition from dienone 15. The 6/6/6 tricyclic structure in 15 can be constructed through dearomatization of compound 16, which in turn can be readily synthesized through consecutive alkylation steps starting from magnolol (11). Additionally, using magnolol as the starting material brings

• DIPEA, affording compound 17 with an 89% yield [11]. For the following alkylation step with tert-butyl bromoacetate, three bases were tested: potassium carbonate, cesium carbonate, and sodium hydride. Considering the targeted alkylation of a phenolic hydroxy group and the pKa requirements of this

Cryptophycin unit B analogues

• Thomas Schachtsiek,
• Jona Voss,
• Maren Hamsen,
• Beate Neumann,
• Hans-Georg Stammler and
• Norbert Sewald

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 526–532, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.40

• of N-alkylation on the non-chlorinated unit B derivatives. Results and Discussion For the synthesis of unit B derivatives with amino groups instead of the naturally occurring methoxy group ᴅ-phenylalanine served as the fundamental substrate (Scheme 1). Nitration [23] followed by methyl ester

• cryptophycins 1 and 2 showed high cytotoxicity with 313 pM (1) and 6.36 nM (2) and outstandingly low resistance factors. Furthermore, the new cryptophycin 1 confirms the correlation between degree of alkylation and cytotoxicity of m-chloro-p-amino unit B derivatives. Since MDR is responsible for over 90% of

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

• novel compound DPQ1. Keywords: deazapurines; heterocycles; pyrrolopyrimidines; queuosine; riboswitches; ribozymes; RNA alkylation; RNA labelling; Introduction Pre-queuosine 1 (preQ1) is a biosynthetic precursor of the hypermodified nucleoside queuosine (Q) that is found in the wobble position of

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

• reactions: A) atom-transfer-radical addition, B) pinacol coupling, C) decarboxylative alkylation, D) [2 + 2] cycloaddition. The photo in Scheme 11 was reproduced from [77] (© 2024 F. Millward et al., published by Wiley-VCH GmbH, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Synthesis, characterization, antimicrobial, cytotoxic and carbonic anhydrase inhibition activities of multifunctional pyrazolo-1,2-benzothiazine acetamides

• Ayesha Saeed,
• Shahana Ehsan,
• Muhammad Zia-ur-Rehman,
• Erin M. Marshall,
• Sandra Loesgen,
• Abdus Saleem,
• Simone Giovannuzzi and
• Claudiu T. Supuran

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 348–357, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.25

• ) products and with alkylating agents 6i–n to give the N- and O-alkylated (dialkylated) products. The alkylation of compound 5 was controlled by the molar quantities of alkylating agents and base present. Thus, compound 5 was N-alkylated using equimolar quantities of the alkylating agents 6a–h to give the

• susceptible to alkylation than the OH group. However, under more basic conditions and using the alkylating agent in excess can lead to a dialkylated product. It has already been established that N-alkylation takes place before O-alkylation because the nitrogen atom is a softer nucleophile as compared to the

• oxygen atom [50]. Preferential N-alkylation (over O-alkylation) of 1,2-benzothiazine scaffolds has also been carried out by Ahmad and co-workers in 2014 and Szczęśniak-Sięga and companions in 2018 [37][51]. Structure elucidation of all the synthesized derivatives was carried out using 1H, 13C NMR, and

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

• antitumor activity, triggered by DNA alkylation [6][7][8]. The aminonitrile/hemiaminal at C21 generates an iminium cation while releasing a cyanide or a hydroxy group under physiological conditions. This iminium cation facilitates nucleophilic attack by guanine residues in the minor groove of the GC-rich

• three base pairs, predominantly 5’-GGC-3’ and 5’-GGG-3’ [12][13]. Notably, a bis-phenol type unnatural analog 3, composed of the C5 deoxy A-ring bearing a phenolic hydroxy group at C8, presumably as a HB donor upon interaction with nucleic acids, exhibits superior DNA alkylation capability compared to

• - and E- rings serve as hydrogen bond (HB) donors/acceptors to facilitate DNA alkylation at C21. UV–vis absorption (gray solid line), the emission spectrum (blue solid line), and the corresponding excitation spectrum (blue dashed line) of the imidate 18 in CHCl3 (c = 100 μM). aQuantum yield (Φfl

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

• involves a Friedel–Crafts alkylation of the arene followed by hydroamination (Scheme 6) [5]. The mechanism plausibly starts with the in situ formation of triflic acid from Cu(OTf)2 which leads to protonation of the oxygen atom of the alcohol with generation of the activated allyl alcohol. This latter gives

• the allyl carbenium ion VI through the loss of a molecule of water, then undergoes a Friedel–Crafts alkylation by attack of the aromatic partner. The outcome of the reaction proceeds through a Markovnikov protonation of the allylated arene VII by triflic acid, which generates the carbocation

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

Facile one-pot reduction of β-nitrostyrenes to phenethylamines using sodium borohydride and copper(II) chloride

• Laura D’Andrea and
• Simon Jademyr

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 39–46, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.4

• ), N,N-diphenethylhydroxylamine (b) as second product is proposed. The latter may be produced from the reaction of 2-phenylacetaldehyde (e) and the reduced amino product d via reductive alkylation [38][39][40] (Scheme 3). Further research is required to clarify the formation of high molecular weight

Giese-type alkylation of dehydroalanine derivatives via silane-mediated alkyl bromide activation

• Perry van der Heide,
• Michele Retini,
• Fabiola Fanini,
• Giovanni Piersanti,
• Francesco Secci,
• Daniele Mazzarella,
• Timothy Noël and
• Alberto Luridiana

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3274–3280, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.271

• building blocks like organohalides can be converted into alkyl radicals by means of photoinduced silane-mediated halogen-atom transfer (XAT) to offer a mild and straightforward methodology of alkylation. In this research, we present a metal-free strategy for the photochemical alkylation of dehydroalanine

• these hydrides, we sought to combine these findings. Herein, we report a photochemical alkylation methodology targeting the olefin moiety of Dha derivatives, conducted in an aqueous solution for the aforementioned bioorthogonal advantages. Results and Discussion Inspired by previously conducted research

•  3), obtaining a slightly elevated yield (67%) compared to compound 3, which was previously formed at a 0.5 mmol scale. Conclusion In conclusion, a photochemical methodology to promote the metal-free alkylation of dehydroalanine derivatives was developed, by means of silane-mediated alkyl bromide

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

• ). Firstly, hydrogenation with palladium on carbon led to the formation of 55 in a good yield. Secondly, an alkylation of the NH of the indole followed by intramolecular cyclization led to tetracyclic derivative 56 in an 80% yield. Next, a deprotection of the azo nitrogen atom led to derivative 57 in a 92

• carried out (Scheme 27). An N-alkylation of 69b was performed leading to 70 bearing two stereogenic axes, the biaryl C–C axis and the N–N axis. The removal of the Boc group led to product 71 in a 98% yield. Then, this derivative was subjected to different transformations. Firstly, the hydrogenation using

• enantioselectivities (87–99% ee) [49]. Furthermore, to demonstrate the synthetic potential of the methodology, further transformations were carried out. Firstly, the N-alkylation of 78e with ethyl bromoacetate led to the synthesis of tetrasubstituted hydrazine 79 in an excellent yield. This derivative has a newly

Direct trifluoroethylation of carbonyl sulfoxonium ylides using hypervalent iodine compounds

• Radell Echemendía,
• Carlee A. Montgomery,
• Fabio Cuzzucoli,
• Antonio C. B. Burtoloso and
• Graham K. Murphy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3182–3190, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.263

• reactants. Finally, DFT calculations provided insights about the mechanism of this transformation, which strongly suggest that an SN2 reaction is operative. Keywords: alkylation; DFT calculations; fluorine chemistry; hypervalent iodine; sulfoxonium ylide; sulphur ylides; Introduction Introducing fluorine

• [28]. In 2017, the Aϊssa group described a procedure to better synthesize such α-alkyl-substituted carbonyl sulfoxonium ylides [29]. This protocol involved the alkylation of a dialkyl thioether, counterion exchange, oxidation, and eventual acylation (Scheme 1a). More recently, the Burtoloso group

• reported the α-alkylation of carbonyl sulfoxonium ylides via a Michael addition approach that occurred without any competition from cyclopropanation [30]. While this reaction represented the first direct alkylation of sulfoxonium ylides, it was nonetheless limited to the more reactive ester ylide variants

Advances in the use of metal-free tetrapyrrolic macrocycles as catalysts

• Mandeep K. Chahal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3085–3112, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.257

• at β- and meso-positions, N-alkylation, arylation or protonation, interruption of the conjugated system, reduction/oxidation of the macrocycle and/or strapping of the macrocycle via covalent linkage of the meso- or β-pyrrole positions [22][53][54][55][56][57]. These alternations can significantly

• electron-withdrawing substituents at the meso- and/or β-positions and highly saddle-distorted geometry (27, 29–31) are inactive (Table 2). Mono-N-alkylation of the macrocycles resulted in a slight improvement of activity giving up to 50–62% conversion for 34 and 37, both of which are alkylated versions of

• an inactive tetraarylporphyrin 18, by increasing the porphyrin basicity and distortion. On the other hand, di-N-alkylation of 18 (providing compound 38) reduced the catalytic activity to only 5% conversion. The authors also screened cationic N-alkylated macrocycles (39–41) and found that only 39 with

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

• intermediate D and on to product 95. Difunctionalization of unsaturated С–С bonds with ROO fragment With C-containing second component Alkyl fragment: The first example of the alkylation–peroxidation of C=C double bonds using TBHP and C–H as partner has been reported in 1995 on the example of Cu-catalyzed

• of radical particles D and E, respectively. Further, recombination of D and E with radicals B and C results in the formation of the target difunctionalization product 101. Alkylation–peroxidation of coumarins 102 also was realized without metal catalyst (Scheme 36) [93]. Firstly, the tert-butoxy

• cleaved to yield the ketone radical F. The subsequent addition of alkene radical F and tert-butylperoxy radical A to alkenes 113 leads to the target product 115. Cobalt-catalyzed alkylation–peroxidation of alkenes 117 with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds 116 and TBHP was developed (Scheme 40) [97][98]. Gram

Copper-catalyzed yne-allylic substitutions: concept and recent developments

• Shuang Yang and
• Xinqiang Fang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2739–2775, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.232

• alkoxylation and alkylation products with the assistance of Lewis acid as co-catalyst (Scheme 9). Starting from four different racemic substrates, the same product 6g with 96% ee was obtained under standard conditions. This indicates that the reactions proceed through the same transition state and the

• . Amine-participated asymmetric yne-allylic substitution. Asymmetric decarboxylative yne-allylic substitution. Asymmetric yne-allylic alkoxylation and alkylation. Proposed mechanism for Cu(I) system. Asymmetric yne-allylic dialkylamination. Proposed mechanism of yne-allylic dialkylamination. Asymmetric