Synthetic applications of the Cannizzaro reaction

• Bhaskar Chatterjee,
• Dhananjoy Mondal and
• Smritilekha Bera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1376–1395, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.120

• potentially useful molecules. Keywords: Cannizzaro reaction; crossed-Cannizzaro; desymmetrization; Lewis acid catalyst; natural products; Introduction The synthesis of functionalized molecules with structural complexity has always been a challenge to synthetic chemists. The Cannizzaro reaction, in its

• formaldehyde is used as a reductant. This variant is known as the crossed-Cannizzaro reaction. On the other hand, an intramolecular Cannizzaro reaction occurs when both aldehyde groups are present in a single molecule. In this scenario, one aldehyde group is reduced to the corresponding alcohol, while the

• other is oxidized to a carboxylic acid. The mechanistic pathway of the intramolecular, intermolecular, and crossed-Cannizzaro reactions is well-known and is depicted in Figure 1 [7][8][9][10][11]. As per contemporary mechanistic understanding of this disproportionation reaction, it involves the transfer