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

• -disubstituted piperidine-containing amino acid subunits. Likewise, a cyano-substituted cyclic aminal is a core structural unit of the fibroblast activation protein inhibitor 5 [3] (Figure 1). The widespread use of non-proteinogenic cyclic amino acids in drug discovery justifies both the design of new analogs

• initial deprotonation of carboxylic acid 9a by cathodically generated hydroxide is followed by anodic oxidation/decarboxylation of the formed carboxylate 9a-I to generate stabilized cation 9a-II. The latter undergoes intramolecular cyclization with the tethered N-nucleophile into cyclic aminal 6a. In a

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

• , in which the copper catalyst (CuCl, 15 mol %) only activates the C–H bond of the terminal alkyne, and the resulting nucleophile A reacts with the iminium ion F generated from CH2Cl2 and the secondary amine via an aminal intermediate E (Scheme 24) [68]. However, Yu et al. found no evidence for the

• formation of an aminal intermediate E or the enamine derivative when they tried to obtain it from the reaction of CH2Cl2 and diethylamine in the absence of alkyne under suitable conditions (CuCl, 5 mol %, DBU 1 equiv, CH3CN, 60 °C) [62]. Only in some cases can the reaction of CH2Cl2 and certain cyclic

• secondary amines such as piperidine or pyrrolidine afford an aminal or an iminium ion, in general under high temperature or pressure conditions, which is not the case for the AHA coupling [69][70]. Despite these cases, the absence of evidence in terms of iminium ion generation confirms that the AHA coupling

Challenge N- versus O-six-membered annulation: FeCl₃-catalyzed synthesis of heterocyclic N,O-aminals

• Giacomo Mari,
• Lucia De Crescentini,
• Gianfranco Favi,
• Fabio Mantellini,
• Diego Olivieri and
• Stefania Santeusanio

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1412–1420, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.123

• Abstract A new class of heterocyclic N,O-aminal and hemiaminal scaffolds was successfully obtained by means of a three-component reaction (3-CR) of 1,2-diaza-1,3-dienes (DDs), α-aminoacetals and iso(thio)cyanates. These stable imine surrogates are generated from key-substituted (thio)hydantoin

• goal, different Lewis acids (10 mol %) such as Zn(OTf)2, CuCl2, and FeCl3 were screened at room temperature in different solvents, employing compound 4a as the model substrate (Table 1). From the set of data collected, both the formation of N,O-aminal 5a and corresponding hemiaminal 6a were observed

• yield of 6 was observed alongside a decreased yield of 5, in all those cases that required prolonged reaction times (24–30 h). This event led us to suppose the formation of carbinolamine 6 from N,O-aminal 5 owing to the nucleophilic attack of a water molecule, probably caused by the enriched moisture

Mechanisms for radical reactions initiating from N-hydroxyphthalimide esters

• Carlos R. Azpilcueta-Nicolas and
• Jean-Philip Lumb

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 346–378, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.35

• formation of α-amino radical 107 through photoinduced SET followed by fragmentation. Subsequent oxidation of 107 by radical cation q-Ac•+ afforded iminium ion 108 before nucleophilic addition of the in situ-generated tetrachlorophthalimyl anion (–TCPhth) led to the formation of aminal product 105. Of note

Asymmetric tandem conjugate addition and reaction with carbocations on acylimidazole Michael acceptors

• Brigita Mudráková,
• Renata Marcia de Figueiredo,
• Jean-Marc Campagne and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 881–888, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.65

• enolates obtained from acylimidazoles in this work with other metal enolates obtained by related conjugate additions. In comparison, the HOMO energy of a related silyl ketene aminal was similar (−7.87 eV) but its NBO charge was more negative −0.343. The TMS enolate of benzoxazole has a higher HOMO energy

1,4,6,10-Tetraazaadamantanes (TAADs) with N-amino groups: synthesis and formation of boron chelates and host–guest complexes

• Artem N. Semakin,
• Ivan S. Golovanov,
• Yulia V. Nelyubina and
• Alexey Yu. Sukhorukov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1424–1434, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.148

• , deprotection reactions were performed at low temperatures to prevent degradation of the aminal fragments. Indeed, treatment of Bn-4c with hydrochloric acid at 0 °C resulted in a substitution of one NNH2 unit with the oxygen atom producing product 22, having a hitherto undescribed 4-oxa-1,6,10-triazaadamantane

A photochemical C=C cleavage process: toward access to backbone N-formyl peptides

• Haopei Wang and
• Zachary T. Ball

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2932–2938, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.202

• give amide 12 with a half-life (t1/2) of 6.4 h. The observation of N-formyl products can be rationalized with a bifurcating mechanism (Figure 5). Following photoactivation, H-atom abstraction and nucleophilic addition of water would produce the key intermediate B. Such hemi-aminal compounds would be

• unstable under basic conditions, readily forming aldehyde products 3. However, related hemi-aminal compounds are quite stable under non-basic conditions, and the motif is even contained in some natural products, such as zampanolide [21] and spergualin [22]. We propose a competing electrocyclization pathway

Enantioselective PCCP Brønsted acid-catalyzed aminalization of aldehydes

• Martin Kamlar,
• Robert Reiberger,
• Martin Nigríni,
• Ivana Císařová and
• Jan Veselý

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2433–2440, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.160

• enantioselective synthetic strategies towards 2,3-dihydroquinazolinone derivatives has drawn the attention of organic chemists for a long time [14][15][16][17][18], even though the aminal stereocenter is sensitive to racemization [12]. The well-established and straightforward approach in the asymmetric

• the enantioselectivity of the aminalization reaction. While most solvents tested showed to be effective at room temperature, the enantiomeric purity of the corresponding aminal 3a was low in all cases (Table 1, entries 1–5). On the other hand, the yield of 3a was satisfactory in all reactions. In

• was achieved after a significantly prolonged time (7 days), the aminal 3a was isolated in a good yield of 60%. Unfortunately, the reaction proceeded nearly in a racemic fashion. An inefficient catalyst showed up to be the PCCP catalyst derivatized with thiourea functional units (IV); a formation of 3a

N-tert-Butanesulfinyl imines in the asymmetric synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles

• Joseane A. Mendes,
• Paulo R. R. Costa,
• Miguel Yus,
• Francisco Foubelo and
• Camilla D. Buarque

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1096–1140, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.86

Synthetic accesses to biguanide compounds

• Oleksandr Grytsai,
• Cyril Ronco and
• Rachid Benhida

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1001–1040, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.82

• mechanisms for this formation. The first one consists of a direct intramolecular addition–elimination of the triguanide into triazine (path A); and the second involves a tautomeric exchange and subsequent amine elimination from the cyclic aminal intermediate (path B). The isolation of the trisubstituted

Syntheses of spliceostatins and thailanstatins: a review

• William A. Donaldson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1991–2006, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.166

• hydrogenation over Pt2O and then low-temperature DIBAL reduction afforded the all-cis tetrasubstituted tetrahydropyran 27. In Koide et al.’s synthesis, the unsaturated lactone 29 was prepared via the Wittig methenylation of 24, followed by aminal hydrolysis, methallylation of the 2° alcohol 28, and ring-closing

A complementary approach to conjugated N-acyliminium formation through photoredox-catalyzed intermolecular radical addition to allenamides and allencarbamates

• Olusesan K. Koleoso,
• Matthew Turner,
• Felix Plasser and
• Marc C. Kimber

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1983–1990, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.165

• Scheme 4. Given our interest in the N,N’-aminal functionality [50], we also explored variation of the arylamine nucleophile. 2,4-Dimethylaniline, o-anisole, 2-trifluoromethoxyaniline and 3,5-ditrifluoromethylaniline were all effective in this transformation, giving their labile N,N’-allylaminal products

Combining enyne metathesis with long-established organic transformations: a powerful strategy for the sustainable synthesis of bioactive molecules

• Valerian Dragutan,
• Ileana Dragutan,
• Albert Demonceau and
• Lionel Delaude

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 738–755, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.68

• in the pyrrolidine ring catalyzed by RhCl3·H2O, followed by debenzylation, amidation, and aminal generation using the Stille protocol [77]. (–)‐Clavukerin A and related sesquiterpenes Applying original organocatalytic/metal-catalyzed tactics, Metz et al. [78] reported a tandem dienyne RCM for the

Steroid diversification by multicomponent reactions

• Leslie Reguera,
• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Daniel G. Rivera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1236–1256, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.121

• ]. In short, the organocatalytic conjugated addition of benzoylacetonitrile to cinnamaldehyde generates the hemiacetal 30, which next initiates the multicomponent sequence upon condensation with the aniline and formation of the imine, eventually occurring as a stable cyclic aminal. The attack of the

• steroidal isocyanide 31 to the imine (or aminal) leads to the stereoselective formation of the α-adduct intermediates, which rearranges to the final tetrahydropyridine ring 32. Besides the use of steroids as oxo, amine, carboxylic acid and isocyanide components, there is a very early report by Dumestre et

Quinolines from the cyclocondensation of isatoic anhydride with ethyl acetoacetate: preparation of ethyl 4-hydroxy-2-methylquinoline-3-carboxylate and derivatives

• Nicholas G. Jentsch,
• Jared D. Hume,
• Emily B. Crull,
• Samer M. Beauti,
• Amy H. Pham,
• Julie A. Pigza,
• Jacques J. Kessl and
• Matthew G. Donahue

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 2529–2536, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.229

• intramolecular 6-exo-trig cyclization and subsequent proton transfer to the aminal oxygen D. Elimination of the 2-hydroxy group from D then affords the 4-quinolone E that tautomerizes via [1,5]-hydride shift to form quinoline 10. Given the success of employing ethyl acetoacetate in the quinoline

Syn-selective silicon Mukaiyama-type aldol reactions of (pentafluoro-λ⁶-sulfanyl)acetic acid esters with aldehydes

• Anna-Lena Dreier,
• Andrej V. Matsnev,
• Joseph S. Thrasher and
• Günter Haufe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 373–380, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.25

• )-ketene aminal. Signals of 8 were not found any more (Scheme 6). The structure of this intermediate became evident from its NMR data (see Supporting Information File 1). In particular a quintet (3JH,F = 7.0 Hz) at δ = 5.15 ppm in the 1H NMR spectrum is indicative of a vinylic proton. A quintet (2JC,F

• intermediate ketene aminal occurred very fast and was highly (Z)-selective. Unfortunately, the aldol product, which was formed after treatment with p-nitrobenzaldehyde, could not yet be isolated. Anyway, the preliminary results using morpholide 8 are promising. We expect that optimization of the reaction

• -substituted acetmorpholide 8. Intermediate formation of the (Z)-ketene aminal from morpholide 8 with TMSOTf/ Et3N and subsequent transformation to an aldol addition product 9 with p-nitrobenzaldehyde. Optimization of the reaction conditions for the silicon Mukaiyama-type aldol reaction of ester 1 with p

Selective and eco-friendly procedures for the synthesis of benzimidazole derivatives. The role of the Er(OTf)₃ catalyst in the reaction selectivity

• Natividad Herrera Cano,
• Jorge G. Uranga,
• Mónica Nardi,
• Antonio Procopio,
• Daniel A. Wunderlin and
• Ana N. Santiago

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 2410–2419, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.235

• between 1a and 1b observed in this work, two reaction pathways are proposed and shown in Scheme 2: (i) through bisimine rearrangement (path i) and (ii) through a monoamine cyclocondensation–aminal/immonium rearrangement (path ii). In path i, when the aldehyde approaches Er(OTf)3, the carbonyl carbon of

Experimental and theoretical investigations into the stability of cyclic aminals

• Edgar Sawatzky,
• Antonios Drakopoulos,
• Martin Rölz,
• Christoph Sotriffer,
• Bernd Engels and
• Michael Decker

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 2280–2292, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.221

• ; Introduction The aminal system (N,N-acetal) is the structurally equivalent analogue of the O,O-acetal. In the literature this moiety is found as a core element in various important structures, for example in the naturally occurring alkaloids tetraponerine T1 to T8 from the venom of the New Guinean ant

• overview and selection of examples out of numerous compounds incorporating the aminal system as the essential structural feature. Especially the aminal-bearing tetrahydroquinazoline system is of great interest as a structure derived from the quinazolinone and quinazoline cores. These represent privileged

• with aldehydes or ketones yielding bicyclic structures [25][26][27], or by the reduction of the corresponding dihydroquinazolinones [15][16][17] (Scheme 1). The aminal templates obtained can be used as starting materials for the synthesis of a broad spectrum of diverse structures. Oxidation reactions

Enantioconvergent catalysis

• Justin T. Mohr,
• Jared T. Moore and
• Brian M. Stoltz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 2038–2045, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.192

• - and fused-pyrrolidinoxindole architectures, such as lactam 13 and aminal 15, found in several natural product families. Related approaches with organic catalysts were explored in 2012 by Yuan and co-workers [24][25] and in 2014 with tertiary amine squaramide catalysis by Lou and co-workers [26]. The

The synthesis of functionalized bridged polycycles via C–H bond insertion

• Jiun-Le Shih,
• Po-An Chen and
• Jeremy A. May

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 985–999, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.97

• generated the tosylamine-bridged bicycle 51. The aminal in 51 could be transformed to a methyl hemiaminal, and then later a second C–H bond insertion by another nitrene targeted the less activated C–H bond to form the ring-fused piperidine 52. Thus, the pendant sulfonamide acted as a tool for multiple

Strecker degradation of amino acids promoted by a camphor-derived sulfonamide

• M. Fernanda N. N. Carvalho,
• M. João Ferreira,
• Ana S. O. Knittel,
• Maria da Conceição Oliveira,
• João Costa Pessoa,
• Rudolf Herrmann and
• Gabriele Wagner

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 732–744, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.73

• or aminal (carbinolamine)-type compounds. Thus, we set out to investigate the reaction of 1 with amino acids. Simple imines could not be observed. Instead, compound 2 was obtained (Scheme 1), containing two camphor-derived moieties, bridged by a nitrogen atom, and its structure was fully elucidated

• mechanisms should have an appreciable barrier (activation energy) and therefore give an indication for the viability of different reaction paths. For the ninhydrin reaction with amino acids, a concerted mechanism with simultaneous elimination of CO2 and H2O from an intermediate aminal (carbinolamine) has

Opportunities and challenges for direct C–H functionalization of piperazines

• Zhishi Ye,
• Kristen E. Gettys and
• Mingji Dai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 702–715, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.70

• , the resulting aminal products can be further diversified into other carbon-substituted piperazine products. Conclusion In summary, despite the importance and necessity of substituted piperazines in medicinal chemistry, there is still a lack of general and practical methods to directly and

A facile synthetic route to benzimidazolium salts bearing bulky aromatic N-substituents

• Gabriele Grieco,
• Olivier Blacque and
• Heinz Berke

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1656–1666, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.182

• aminal intermediate. The failures to access 1-Cl and 2-Cl may originate from the high steric hindrance of the 2,6-substituents of the N1,N2-diarylbenzene-1,2-diamines preventing initial aminal formation. Involving instead triethyl orthoformate has the advantage that this C1 building block provides the

Synthesis of new enantiopure poly(hydroxy)aminooxepanes as building blocks for multivalent carbohydrate mimetics

• Léa Bouché,
• Maja Kandziora and
• Hans-Ulrich Reissig

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 213–223, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.17

• in situ generated formaldehyde (dehydrogenation of methanol) [50][51][52][53] and subsequent aminal formation with aminooxepanes 26 and 27. The aminoalcohol 28 seems not to form the corresponding compounds. We suppose that bicyclic compound 28 is more strained and hence the formation of a third ring

Recent applications of the divinylcyclopropane–cycloheptadiene rearrangement in organic synthesis

• Sebastian Krüger and
• Tanja Gaich

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 163–193, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.14

• quarternary carbon center, the resulting amide cyclized during the purification on silica to give amide 174. Reduction of this amide to the aminal was followed by dehydration and Lemieux–Johnson [149] oxidative cleavage to give dialdehyde 175. The liberated alcohol moiety was reprotected, followed by cleavage