Diastereoselective synthesis of highly substituted cyclohexanones and tetrahydrochromene-4-ones via conjugate addition of curcumins to arylidenemalonates

• Deepa Nair,
• Abhishek Tiwari,
• Banamali Laha and
• Irishi N. N. Namboothiri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2016–2023, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.177

• from curcumins and arylidenemalonates is reported. This strategy works in the presence of aqueous KOH using TBAB as a suitable phase transfer catalyst at room temperature. The functionalized cyclohexanones are formed as major products in moderate to excellent yields with complete diastereoselectivity

• in most cases. A triple Michael adduct, tetrahydrochromen-4-one, is also formed as a side product in a few cases with excellent diastereoselectivity. Keywords: arylidenemalonates; curcumins; cyclohexanones; diastereoselective synthesis; Michael reaction; tetrahydrochromenones; Introduction There is

• -arylidene-1,3-indandiones was reported by Zhang and co-workers using quinine as a catalyst, giving multicyclic spiro-1,3-indandiones in moderate yields with enantioselectivities as well as diastereoselectivities [39]. However, to the best of our knowledge, arylidenemalonates have not been employed as

A quantitative approach to nucleophilic organocatalysis

• Herbert Mayr,
• Sami Lakhdar,
• Biplab Maji and
• Armin R. Ofial

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 1458–1478, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.166

• nucleophiles are characterized by two solvent-dependent parameters, the nucleophilicity parameter N and the sensitivity parameter sN [1][2][3]. By defining benzhydrylium ions, structurally related quinone methides, and arylidenemalonates as reference electrophiles, which cover a reactivity range of 32 orders