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

• construction, alkyne hydrogenation, ylide and carbene reaction, metathesis, E/Z isomerization, and other methods, including Cα and Cβ functionalizations. Preparing various functional group-tethered aromatic groups can be achieved by directly installing an aromatic group via cross-coupling reactions and other

• ]. 3 Double-bond functionalization 3.1 Double-bond constructions 3.1.1 Conjugated alkyne hydrogenation: Mei and co-workers (2019) developed a Pd-catalyzed partial hydrogenation of conjugated alkynes in the presence of water as the hydrogen source and Mn as the reductant to give the corresponding

• catalyze the partial hydrogenation of the conjugated alkyne 374, also using water as the hydrogen source to give trans-methyl cinnamate (44). The reaction also proceeds via a palladium–hydride species (Scheme 81B) [138]. The method has been smoothly conducted in a gram scale operation. More sustainable

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

• enamides as nucleophiles, rendering them more stable than enamines. This stability is reflected in their frequent occurrence in natural products [4]. As a result, research on the synthetic applications of enamides has historically lagged behind that of enamines [5][6]. Beyond their use in hydrogenation

• aldol condensation of 5 provided the tetracyclic α,β-unsaturated enone 6 in 57% yield. Subsequent catalytic hydrogenation using Pd/C conditions delivered the hydrogen to the alkene from the less hindered face, producing ketone 7 with high diastereoselectivity. Final reduction of both the amide and

• , probably due to the formation of a more acidic cationic gold complex. Following this annulation, reduction of the amide in 20, catalytic hydrogenation of the alkene and the N-benzyl group, and subsequent nitrogen acylation yielded chloride 21 in a 42% total yield, setting the stage for the Witkop

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

• debenzylated to brevicarine (2), isolated as a dihydrochloride salt. Müller et al. accomplished an alternative synthesis of brevicarine (2, Scheme 4) [23]. Compound 21 was obtained by treatment of nitrovinylindole 19 with N-methylpyrrole (20). Catalytic hydrogenation of the pyrrole ring and the nitro group of

• ester 29 gave pyrrolo-β-carboline 30 in excellent yield (Scheme 7). Our attempts for the selective saturation of the pyrrole ring of 30 by catalytic reduction were unsuccessful. When the hydrogenation was carried out under mild conditions (ambient temperature, 15 bar H2) in the presence of PtO2.H2O

Silver(I) triflate-catalyzed post-Ugi synthesis of pyrazolodiazepines

• Muhammad Hasan,
• Anatoly A. Peshkov,
• Syed Anis Ali Shah,
• Andrey Belyaev,
• Chang-Keun Lim,
• Shunyi Wang and
• Vsevolod A. Peshkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 915–925, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.74

• scaffolds (Scheme 6) [64][65]. First, we attempted heterogeneous hydrogenation of the alkene functionality in compound 16a under 1 atm hydrogen pressure using Pd/C as a catalyst. Although the reaction proved sluggish, we were able to drive it to completion over a prolonged reaction time of 14 days

Regioselective formal hydrocyanation of allenes: synthesis of β,γ-unsaturated nitriles with α-all-carbon quaternary centers

• Seeun Lim,
• Teresa Kim and
• Yunmi Lee

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 800–806, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.63

• % yield under basic conditions using sodium hydroxide and tert-butanol. The reduction of nitrile 3q with lithium aluminum hydride generated amine 7 in an 85% yield, whereas the selective hydrogenation of the alkene moiety of 3q using a Pd/C catalyst in a H2 gas environment smoothly produced product 8 in a

Development and mechanistic studies of calcium–BINOL phosphate-catalyzed hydrocyanation of hydrazones

• Carola Tortora,
• Christian A. Fischer,
• Sascha Kohlbauer,
• Alexandru Zamfir,
• Gerd M. Ballmann,
• Jürgen Pahl,
• Sjoerd Harder and
• Svetlana B. Tsogoeva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 755–765, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.59

• rearrangement under mild conditions [6], and the Nazarov-type electrocyclization of alkenyl aryl carbinols [7]. Exploiting the ease with which calcium forms hydrides, hydrogenation of aldimines, transfer hydrogenation of alkenes, and even deuteration of benzene by an SNAr mechanism, have been recently achieved

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

• reductive amination to form the hydroxyalkyl handles, which were further converted to the haloalkyl or mesyloxyalkyl-modified target compounds. In addition, we report hydrogenation conditions for preQ0 and DPQ0 that allow for cleaner and faster access to preQ1 compared to existing routes and provide the

• -diaminopyrimidin-4(3H)-one to afford preQ0 (7), as originally reported by Townsend et al. [30]. The next step, namely the reduction of the nitrile moiety by hydrogenation is critical and notoriously difficult due to the low reactivity of this group in preQ0 [26]. We solved this problem by applying strongly acidic

• protic conditions [31] together with a 7-fold increase in hydrogenation pressure (30 bar); this resulted in an almost quantitative conversion and pure preQ1 (1) in the form of its dihydrochloride salt which was isolated after a simple filtration step. Using the same approach, we were able to prepare the

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

• protecting group (OPivCN, 34) as an oligosaccharide protecting group [106]. The cyanopivaloyl group showed high versatility showing the intrinsic advantages of a pivaloyl group while significantly reducing the formation of the orthoester intermediate. It could also be reductively cleaved by hydrogenation in

• hydrogenation step to yield the product 38 [107]. Compound 37 shows all-1,2-trans glycosidic bonds due to the installed pivaloyl group in the C-2 position. This cyanopivaloyl group is also widely used in solid-phase automated oligosaccharide synthesis [107] for the synthesis of oligorhamnoside derivatives. Thus

• capable of being cleaved by two possible orthogonal pathways. The first method involves a relay approach by catalytic hydrogenation followed by the application of 1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalene (bDMAN) which selectively cleaves the protecting group while keeping the other ester groups intact. The

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

• were achieved. 2-Nitrosonaphthalenes 211 could also react with 2-naphthols 214 in the presence of CPA C49 to form axially chiral binaphthyls 215 and finally after hydrogenation atroposelective NOBINs 216. This reaction yielded products in mostly moderate amounts with good levels of enantiomeric purity

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

• reduction can be accomplished via catalytic hydrogenation, involving stepwise reactions and workup, use of additional reagents, and reaction time between 3 and 24 hours [11][12]. Most commonly, metal hydrides are employed, typically lithium aluminum hydride [13][14][15][16][17][18], requiring an inert

• Jackson mechanisms (product (a)), which, to date, were only associated to the catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene analogues [35][36][37] (Figure 3). An attempt to identify the higher molecular masses observed by MS was made, and two intermediate structures are proposed in Figure 3. Together with (a

Emerging trends in the optimization of organic synthesis through high-throughput tools and machine learning

• Pablo Quijano Velasco,
• Kedar Hippalgaonkar and
• Balamurugan Ramalingam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 10–38, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.3

• and timely data analysis, facilitating seamless real-time monitoring of the hydrolysis of 16. The final hydrogenation step was monitored by an in-line IR probe. The spectral data was processed using a partial least squares regression model and quantified. An online UHPLC was used to analyze the final

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

• further investigate the potential utility of this methodology, a gram scale experiment was conducted affording product 16f in a good yield and a slight decrease of the enantioselectivity. Additionally, a derivatization of product 16f by hydrogenation was carried out to yield the tricyclic piperidine 17

• ). 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

N-Glycosides of indigo, indirubin, and isoindigo: blue, red, and yellow sugars and their cancerostatic activity

• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2840–2869, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.240

• application of the Mukaiyama redox condensation using N-iodosuccinic imide (NIS) afforded 10b. Hydrogenation resulted in defunctionalization to give 10c. Transformation of OH-4 to a triflate and subsequent reaction with sodium azide afforded gluco-configured product 10d. The latter was transformed to

Computational design for enantioselective CO₂ capture: asymmetric frustrated Lewis pairs in epoxide transformations

• Maxime Ferrer,
• Iñigo Iribarren,
• Tim Renningholtz,
• Ibon Alkorta and
• Cristina Trujillo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2668–2681, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.224

• alkenes [10][11], they have since found applications in catalysis [12][13]. Among the first catalytic uses of FLPs were the hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds [12][14] and the reduction of CO2 using H2 as a reductant [7][15][16][17]. FLPs have become an attractive avenue for the reduction of CO2

• by Gao et al. for the asymmetric hydrogenation of a ketone is shown [28]. On the right, the catalyst design inspired by the Gao catalyst and the volcano plot results is shown. At the bottom the reaction under study is presented. Free energy reaction profile of the asymmetric coupling between

The scent gland composition of the Mangshan pit viper, Protobothrops mangshanensis

• Jonas Holste,
• Paul Weldon,
• Donald Boyer and
• Stefan Schulz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2644–2654, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.222

• -dimethylalk-5-enoates in a homologous series from C11–C16, were characterized by GC–MS and GC–IR analysis and various microderivatization reactions including hydrogenation and esterification leading to methyl and pyridylmethyl esters. In addition, dimethyloxazoline formation helped to localize the double bond

• saturated compound would provide more insight into the structure. After hydrogenation, the spectra of methylated and hydrogenated Dmh showed m/z 87 as the base peak (Supporting Information File 1, Figure S3), which is strongly characteristic of a methyl branch at C-4 [20]. The position of the second methyl

• concentrated under a stream of N2. Hydrogenation: The solvent of the natural extract (100 µL) was removed with a stream of N2 and taken up in pentane (100 µL) and a catalytic amount of Pd/C was added. The reaction was then stirred for 1 h under a H2 atmosphere. The catalyst was filtered and rinsed with pentane

A review of recent advances in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical late-stage functionalization classified by anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, and paired electrolysis

• Nian Li,
• Ruzal Sitdikov,
• Ajit Prabhakar Kale,
• Joost Steverlynck,
• Bo Li and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2500–2566, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.214

Catalysing (organo-)catalysis: Trends in the application of machine learning to enantioselective organocatalysis

• Stefan P. Schmid,
• Leon Schlosser,
• Frank Glorius and
• Kjell Jorner

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2280–2304, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.196

• descriptors, Asahara and Miyao [108] considered different CPA-catalysed nucleophilic additions to imines, comprising aza-Mannich reactions and Friedel–Crafts reactions among others. Different reactions were also combined by Liles et al. [124]. For a transfer hydrogenation reaction, the authors used a workflow

Natural resorcylic lactones derived from alternariol

• Joachim Podlech

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2171–2207, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.187

Radical reactivity of antiaromatic Ni(II) norcorroles with azo radical initiators

• Siham Asyiqin Shafie,
• Ryo Nozawa,
• Hideaki Takano and
• Hiroshi Shinokubo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1967–1972, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.172

• the electrophile [16][17][18]. In addition, C–C double bonds of the norcorrole skeleton outside the π-delocalization pathway exhibit a reactivity similar to an alkene to afford hydrogenated norcorroles by hydrogenation [19] or reduction with hydrazine [20] and [3 + 2]-cycloadducts with 1,3-dipoles [21

Negishi-coupling-enabled synthesis of α-heteroaryl-α-amino acid building blocks for DNA-encoded chemical library applications

• Matteo Gasparetto,
• Balázs Fődi and
• Gellért Sipos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1922–1932, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.168

• overall applicability. A different approach for the synthesis of α-amino acids involves the formation of dehydroamino acids and subsequent hydrogenation [13][14]. More recently, there have been reports of techniques that utilize phase transfer catalysts (PTCs) to alkylate glycine derivatives [15][16]. A

Syntheses and medicinal chemistry of spiro heterocyclic steroids

• Laura L. Romero-Hernández,
• Ana Isabel Ahuja-Casarín,
• Penélope Merino-Montiel,
• Sara Montiel-Smith,
• José Luis Vega-Báez and
• Jesús Sandoval-Ramírez

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1713–1745, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.152

• -lactone motif on an estradiol backbone [17]. Beginning with the 7α-alkanamidoestrone derivative 17, a nucleophilic addition by the anion of the THP propargyl ether occurred stereoselectively and provided the alkyne 18 in a 75% yield. Afterwards, the catalytic hydrogenation of the alkyne with a 1:1 mixture

• steroidal 17-ketones were first alkylated in the presence of the lithium derivative of ethyl propiolate. After stereoselective formation of the corresponding adduct, the triple bond was chemoselectively reduced under catalytic hydrogenation using 5% palladium on charcoal. As a final step, a p

• (110a and 110b, respectively). These protected compounds were subjected to alkynylation using 4-THPO-1-butyne on the carbonyl group at C-17, yielding steroids 111. Subsequent catalytic hydrogenation of the triple bonds, followed by deprotection of the alcohols from their THP ether groups and oxidation

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

• on a decagram scale in five steps from (+)-limonene oxide (13), involving epoxide manipulation, oxidative cleavage, and intramolecular aldol condensation. Similarly, the right-half fragment, allyl chloride 16, was synthesized from limonene in five steps. Site-selective hydrogenation, oxidative

• the chemical conversion. Site- and diastereocontrolled hydrogenation of the resulting exomethylene in 27 yielded brassicicene C (28). Further diastereoselective reduction of the C13 ketone completed the total synthesis of brassicicene H (29). By integrating the convergent and scalable chemical

Electrocatalytic hydrogenation of cyanoarenes, nitroarenes, quinolines, and pyridines under mild conditions with a proton-exchange membrane reactor

• Koichi Mitsudo,
• Atsushi Osaki,
• Haruka Inoue,
• Eisuke Sato,
• Naoki Shida,
• Mahito Atobe and
• Seiji Suga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1560–1571, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.139

• Science and Advanced Chemical Energy Research Center, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan 10.3762/bjoc.20.139 Abstract An electrocatalytic hydrogenation of

• hydrogen [13][14][15][16][17][18]. Meanwhile, electrochemical systems using solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) have recently attracted significant attention [19]. Among these, proton-exchange membrane (PEM) reactors are powerful tools for hydrogenation [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33

• smoothly to afford benzylamines, anilines, tetrahydroquinolines, and piperidines using a PEM reactor under ambient conditions. Results and Discussion Reduction of cyanoarenes to benzylamines Benzonitrile (1a) was chosen as the model substrate, and the electroreductive hydrogenation of 1a was performed with

Synthesis of 2-benzyl N-substituted anilines via imine condensation–isoaromatization of (E)-2-arylidene-3-cyclohexenones and primary amines

• Lu Li,
• Na Li,
• Xiao-Tian Mo,
• Ming-Wei Yuan,
• Lin Jiang and
• Ming-Long Yuan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1468–1475, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.130

• could be easily carried out by catalytic hydrogenation to produce 6 (Scheme 6a). On the other hand, 4ax could smoothly undergo N-methylation with MeI to give product 7 in quantitative yield (Scheme 6b). Conclusion In conclusion, we have developed an efficient method to rapidly synthesize 2-benzyl-N

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

• proceeded with modest to good yields, in the range of 40–82%, and depicts the Cannizzaro reaction in the transfer hydrogenation process [35]. A facile room temperature Cannizzaro reaction protocol was established by Abaee et al. employing magnesium bromide etherate and triethylamine in dichloromethane [77