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

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

• , reductive cleavage of the chiral auxiliary using a combination of LDA and BH3·NH3 provided the target molecule 82 in a 76% yield. The authors emphasized that the Theodorakis’ C3–C11 fragment 82 of borrelidin was synthesized via a concise 8-step route, achieving a 36% overall yield from the chiral pool

• treatment with Ph3P/I2/imidazole reagents and reacted with lithiated pseudoephedrine propionamide. The resulting product 144 was obtained in 88% yield. Basic hydrolysis of this compound successfully removed the chiral auxiliary, yielding acid 145 in 91% yield. Sequential reduction of this carboxylic acid

Salen–scandium(III) complex-catalyzed asymmetric (3 + 2) annulation of aziridines and aldehydes

• Linqiang Wang and
• Jiaxi Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1087–1094, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.86

• [5] and the FDA-approved antibiotic linezolid [6] (Figure 1). Both chiral oxazolidines [7][8] and oxazolidinones [9][10] have been utilized as chiral auxiliary groups in many asymmetric organic transformations. Oxazolidine derivatives have been prepared mainly from condensation of vicinal amino

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

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

• ether-type chiral auxiliary group for protection of the hydroxy group in the C-2 position was devised by Boons et al. in 2005 which opened a new avenue in oligosaccharide synthesis. Auxiliary group indicates a substituted ethyl protection which has a nucleophilic centre that can donate electrons in the

• tartgeted reaction [148]. A proper modulation of the stereochemistry of the chiral auxiliary group allows to obtain both the 1,2-cis and 1,2-trans stereoselective glycoside product (Scheme 17) [149]. An O-2 chiral auxiliary group in the glycoside donor interacts with the anomeric carbon to produce a decalin

• 1,2-cis decalin 101 facilitating the formation of 1,2-trans glycosidic product 102. This protocol was further demonstrated successfully by the same research group by using the easily available R and S enantiomers of the first-generation chiral auxiliary, ethyl mandelate. Similarly, a (1S)-phenyl-2

Chemo-enzymatic total synthesis: current approaches toward the integration of chemical and enzymatic transformations

• Ryo Tanifuji and
• Hiroki Oguri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1693–1712, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.151

• -half segment 72 was prepared from mixed anhydride 68 (Scheme 8A). Condensation with chiral auxiliary 69 and subsequent diastereoselective alkylation, followed by reductive removal of the auxiliary and iodination of the resulting primary alcohol provided alkyl iodide 70 [78]. Subsequent six-step

Skeletal rearrangement of 6,8-dioxabicyclo[3.2.1]octan-4-ols promoted by thionyl chloride or Appel conditions

• Martyn Jevric,
• Julian Klepp,
• Johannes Puschnig,
• Oscar Lamb,
• Christopher J. Sumby and
• Ben W. Greatrex

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 823–829, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.74

• Diels–Alder adducts of 1, and similar results on the effect of configuration were observed [21]. During some recent attempts at the chlorination of the π-stacking chiral auxiliary 10a using SOCl2 [9], we observed the migration of O8 resulting in the formation of anomeric chlorides analogous to the

• chiral auxiliary 10a, and following a survey of conditions and isolation protocols, a 90% yield was obtained when 10a was heated in the presence of 2 equivalents of SOCl2 and 5 equivalents of pyridine in DCE. Flash chromatography of the chloroalkyl ether 11a resulted in significant loss due to hydrolysis

α-(Aminomethyl)acrylates as acceptors in radical–polar crossover 1,4-additions of dialkylzincs: insights into enolate formation and trapping

• Angel Palillero-Cisneros,
• Paola G. Gordillo-Guerra,
• Fernando García-Alvarez,
• Olivier Jackowski,
• Franck Ferreira,
• Fabrice Chemla,
• Joel L. Terán and
• Alejandro Perez-Luna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.103

• ). Asymmetric variants of these transformations are possible using the tert-butanesulfinyl chiral auxiliary on the nitrogen atom. The levels of 1,4-stereoinduction are significant but a convincing model to account for it cannot be put forward at this point. Nonetheless, from a synthetic methodology point of

Construction of hexabenzocoronene-based chiral nanographenes

• Ranran Li,
• Di Wang,
• Shengtao Li and
• Peng An

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 736–751, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.54

• this helical aza-NG was achieved by introducing a chiral auxiliary reagent at the nitrogen site [40], and the racemization barrier of one enantiomer was measured as 26.2 kcal/mol by monitoring the changes of CD spectra at 60–80 °C. The synthesis started with the Diels−Alder reaction of 5H-dibenzo[b,f

Enolates ambushed – asymmetric tandem conjugate addition and subsequent enolate trapping with conventional and less traditional electrophiles

• Péter Kisszékelyi and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 593–634, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.44

• successfully applied in the Mukiyama aldol reaction to gain the originally desired aldol adducts with improved yields and still good dr. Finally, the cerium ammonium nitrate (CAN) promoted one-step oxidative removal of the chiral auxiliary group was also successfully demonstrated. In 2012, Aikawa et al

• enolate intermediate with benzaldehyde (51) and methyl bromoacetate (181) (Scheme 46). At about the same time, Riant and co-workers investigated the chiral auxiliary-assisted Cu-catalyzed tandem silylation/aldol reaction between enoyloxazolidinones and different aromatic aldehydes [89]. In the case of

A new oxidatively stable ligand for the chiral functionalization of amino acids in Ni(II)–Schiff base complexes

• Alena V. Dmitrieva,
• Oleg A. Levitskiy,
• Yuri K. Grishin and
• Tatiana V. Magdesieva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 566–574, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.41

• )) and includes a chiral auxiliary, an amino acid, and a bifunctional linker capable to arrange the components in the Schiff base complex. Such templates provide a significant C–H acidity at the α-amino acid carbon and a possibility for recycling of the chiral auxiliaries (for reviews see [5][14][15][16

Total synthesis of grayanane natural products

• Nicolas Fay,
• Rémi Blieck,
• Cyrille Kouklovsky and
• Aurélien de la Torre

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1707–1719, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.181

• and 23 steps) to access grayananes with a cyclopentenone moiety on the A ring. It should be noted that although this is a racemic synthesis, intermediate 37 was also synthesized in enantioenriched form using a chiral copper catalyst for the cyclopropanation and a chiral auxiliary on the ester moiety

• authors showed that a key intermediate could be obtained enantioselectively (93% ee) by a combination of a chiral catalyst and chiral auxiliary, although requiring extra steps for auxiliary installation and cleavage. Scheme 12 summarizes the last 3 synthetic strategies for grayanane synthesis. Each group

• to be tackled. A highly enantioselective synthesis is still desirable, as the only synthesis offering >90% ee relies on the combination of chiral ligands and chiral auxiliary. Moreover, to date only 6 natural products from the grayanane family were synthesized, out of the more than 160 compounds

Preparation of an advanced intermediate for the synthesis of leustroducsins and phoslactomycins by heterocycloaddition

• Anaïs Rousseau,
• Guillaume Vincent and
• Cyrille Kouklovsky

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1385–1395, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.143

• , we have shown that the Wightman reagent 6, a chiral chloronitroso derivative [27], led to a complete regio- and stereoselective reaction with functionalized dienes (Scheme 1). The chiral auxiliary contributes to both regioselectivity and stereoselectivity. After hydrolysis of the chiral auxiliary and

Synthetic strategies toward 1,3-oxathiolane nucleoside analogues

• Umesh P. Aher,
• Dhananjai Srivastava,
• Girij P. Singh and
• Jayashree B. S

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2680–2715, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.182

• hydroxyoxathiolane 32. Further, acetylation of the hydroxyoxathiolane in the presence of methanesulfonic acid gave a 1:2 mixture of the trans-diastereomer 33 and the cis-diastereomer 34. The esterification using ʟ-menthol as a chiral auxiliary resulted in a diastereomeric mixture, which was successfully

• acid derivatives to test the impact of a chiral auxiliary on N-glycosylation. Compound 50 was synthesized by ozonolysis of alkene 3rb, followed by reaction of aldehyde (generated in situ from alkene) with 1,4-dithiane-2,5-diol (3q). The use of lactic acid derivatives provided both enantiomers of

• ) and FTC (2). One of the methods of choice for the industrial manufacturing of lamivudine (1) follows the procedure suggested by Whitehead et al. [55]. This procedure involves the use of compound 56a, where an ʟ-menthyl moiety as chiral auxiliary is connected to an enantiomerically pure oxathiolane

Recent advances in organocatalytic asymmetric aza-Michael reactions of amines and amides

• Pratibha Sharma,
• Raakhi Gupta and
• Raj K. Bansal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2585–2610, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.173

• by using different PTCs in order to improve yield and diastereomeric excess. They incorporated PTC and chiral auxiliary and reacted a variety of chiral phthalimidines 57 to obtain isoindolinones 59 in good yields (≈85%) with excellent de ranging 48–96% (Table 13) [48]. 1.5 Catalysis by chiral

Progress and challenges in the synthesis of sequence controlled polysaccharides

• Giulio Fittolani,
• Theodore Tyrikos-Ergas,
• Denisa Vargová,
• Manishkumar A. Chaube and
• Martina Delbianco

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1981–2025, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.129

• approach was efficient in solid phase as well as in solution phase synthesis. The participating (S)-(phenylthiomethyl) benzyl chiral auxiliary at the C-2 position of the glucosyl donor permitted the solid phase synthesis of a branched pentaglucan having a α(1–3) branch on an α(1–6) backbone [174]. Boron

Development of N-F fluorinating agents and their fluorinations: Historical perspective

• Teruo Umemoto,
• Yuhao Yang and
• Gerald B. Hammond

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1752–1813, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.123

• treated with (−)-menthoxyacetyl chloride, followed by separation of the diastereomers. The chiral auxiliary was then removed with LiOH and the resulting sultams 27-5 as single enantiomers were fluorinated with 15% F2/He in the presence of KF to produce optically pure N-fluorosultam reagents (R)- and (S

Total synthesis of ent-pavettamine

• Memory Zimuwandeyi,
• Manuel A. Fernandes,
• Amanda L. Rousseau and
• Moira L. Bode

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1440–1446, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.99

• -pavettamine rather than pavettamine. Chain extension and stereoselective ketone reduction were achieved using the (R)-methyl p-tolyl sulfoxide chiral auxiliary to give the desired 1,3-syn-diol C5 unit. A protecting-group strategy was also developed for the orthogonal protection of the alcohol and amine

• addition of the chiral auxiliary. Our attention then turned to the stereoselective reduction of 8. Chelation-controlled reduction of 8 using ZnCl2 and DIBALH allowed for the successful formation of 16 as a single diastereomer (Scheme 4), as evidenced by 1H NMR spectroscopy [18]. TBS deprotection furnished

A comprehensive review of flow chemistry techniques tailored to the flavours and fragrances industries

• Guido Gambacorta,
• James S. Sharley and
• Ian R. Baxendale

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1181–1312, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.90

• as a chiral auxiliary which was then removed by hydrolysis in the final step of the overall seven-step synthesis. Deprotonation of 41 using LiHMDS in THF in a primary reactor was performed at −40 °C and telescoped into a second reactor along with a stream containing the trityl-protected aldehyde, 42

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

• heterocycles. The present work will comprehensively cover the most pertinent contributions to this research area from 2012 to 2020. We regret in advance that some contributions are excluded in order to maintain a concise format. Keywords: asymmetric synthesis; chiral auxiliary; natural products; nitrogen

• organometallic compounds to the iminic carbon [1][2][3]. The ready availability of both enantiomers of tert-butanesulfinamide in large-scale processes, the easy deprotection of the amine under mild acidic conditions, and a practical procedure for recycling the chiral auxiliary [4][5] have contributed to the

• , indicating a mismatch between the chiral auxiliary and the stereocenter in this substrate. Concerning the oxidative cyclization reaction, pyridinium dichromate (PDC) provided low yields of expected lactam 77. Many oxidants were checked for this transformation to take place, and the Sarett reagent [CrO3·(C5H5

Menthyl esterification allows chiral resolution for the synthesis of artificial glutamate analogs

• Kenji Morokuma,
• Shuntaro Tsukamoto,
• Kyosuke Mori,
• Kei Miyako,
• Ryuichi Sakai,
• Raku Irie and
• Masato Oikawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 540–550, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.48

• independently be synthesized from the racemic carboxylic acid intermediate (rac)-7 [6]. For such a chiral resolution, we recently discovered that ʟ-(−)-menthol (8) is of use as a chiral auxiliary in the enantiospecific synthesis of the other analogs 2 and 5 (see Figure 1) [4], and the strategy was found to also

• expected to show potent neuroactivity. Our established synthetic route to racemic MC-27 ((rac)-4) [5][6][7]. Resolution of the MC-27 precursor (rac)-7 by a chiral auxiliary. Final elaboration of (2R)-MC-27 (4). Synthesis of (2S)-MC-27 (4*) from 9*. Construction and chiral resolution of the 5/5/8-ring

Progress in the total synthesis of inthomycins

• Bidyut Kumar Senapati

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 58–82, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.7

• oxidation of (Z)-15a followed by immediate aldol condensation afforded racemic phenol ester (rac)-17 via aldehyde 16. However, several attempts to form enantioenriched aldol fragment 18 using both a chiral auxiliary [25][26][27][28] and catalytic asymmetric [29][30] procedures proceeded without success

Recent progress in the synthesis of homotropane alkaloids adaline, euphococcinine and N-methyleuphococcinine

• Dimas J. P. Lima,
• Antonio E. G. Santana,
• Michael A. Birkett and
• Ricardo S. Porto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 28–41, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.4

• introduction of a chiral auxiliary. Despite having a common intermediate, Murahashi's strategy differed from Gössinger's and Holmes' syntheses by being an asymmetric version. Meyers synthesis – 2000 Mechelke and Meyers prepared (+)-euphococcinine (2) from the bicyclic thiolactam 26 [42]. The strategy was based

• from 30 not only led to the formation of the bicyclic system but also resulted in the loss of the chiral auxiliary, providing (+)-euphococcinine (2). Meyer's approach led to (+)-euphococcinine (2) in 5 steps from lactam 26 in an overall yield of 51.2%. The spectral analysis (1H and 13C NMR, IR, MS) was

• amide, confirming to be a sample with a high level of enantiomeric purity. As in Murahashi’s synthesis, Meyers also utilized a chiral auxiliary for asymmetric induction. Nonetheless, this method differed from Murahashi's by presenting a diastereoselective intramolecular Mannich cyclization to form the

Asymmetric Mannich reactions of (S)-N-tert-butylsulfinyl-3,3,3-trifluoroacetaldimines with yne nucleophiles

• Ziyi Li,
• Li Wang,
• Yunqi Huang,
• Haibo Mei,
• Hiroyuki Konno,
• Hiroki Moriwaki,
• Vadim A. Soloshonok and
• Jianlin Han

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2671–2678, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.217

• ), CH2Cl2 (3 mL), −78 °C, under nitrogen, 2.5 h. Isolated yields of mixture of isomers. Diastereoselectivities were determined by 19F NMR. Large-scale application of the reaction. Removal of the chiral auxiliary. Optimization of reaction conditions.a Supporting Information Supporting Information File 420

Hierarchically assembled helicates as reaction platform – from stoichiometric Diels–Alder reactions to enamine catalysis

• David Van Craen,
• Jenny Begall,
• Johannes Großkurth,
• Leonard Himmel,
• Oliver Linnenberg,
• Elisabeth Isaak and
• Markus Albrecht

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2338–2345, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.195

• processes based on the principle to use self-assembled coordination platforms (or as in the present case mixtures thereof) to control stereoselective C–C bond-forming reactions. Stereoinduction usually relies on spatial proximity of the prochiral carbon atoms and a chiral information of, e.g., a chiral

• auxiliary, Lewis acid or catalyst. In the previously reported system two different induction pathways were conceivable: (1) A chiral ligand is located close to the diene and controls the stereochemistry of the cycloaddition. (2) The chiral ligand controls the helicity of the helicate (ΔΔ or ΛΛ) and the