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

• oxidation, the Meinwald rearrangement/aldol reaction gave rise to the bridge cyclic intermediate 35, which can finally be converted into both (−)-fortuneicyclidin A and (−)-fortuneicyclidin B. Polycyclization Cyclization/Pictet–Spengler reaction The hexahydropyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline or tetrahydropyrrolo

• [2,1-a]isoquinolin-3(2H)-one framework is a pivotal core structure among various pyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline alkaloids, exemplified by (+)-crispine, annosqualine, and erysotramidine, among others (Scheme 5) [29]. These bioactive alkaloids exhibit a broad spectrum of biological activities, including

• yield hexahydropyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline or tetrahydropyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinolin-3(2H)-one frameworks, characteristic of alkaloids such as crispine analogs and erysotramidine. Building on their previous work on cyclization/Pictet–Spengler reaction, the same group further designed cyclopentanone derived

Recent advances in controllable/divergent synthesis

• Jilei Cao,
• Leiyang Bai and
• Xuefeng Jiang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 890–914, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.73

• protoberberine and protonitidine alkaloids are characterized by an isoquinoline ring skeleton. An analysis of their molecular structures revealed that the two alkaloids share a basic structure, differing only in the junction of the B-ring. In 2021, Liu and Jiang designed new pyridyne precursors, which underwent

• cycloaddition reactions with substituted furans as diene component to produce the corresponding epoxy-cycloaddition adducts. The authors developed an Ir/Sc tandem catalytic reaction to convert these adducts into polysubstituted 3-haloisoquinolines 99 in one pot. After obtaining isoquinoline compounds 99 with

• different substituents and polysubstituted annular boronic acids 98, a Suzuki coupling was employed to synthesize advanced isoquinoline intermediates 100. Following this, a 6π electrocyclization reaction and nucleophilic reaction were developed to achieve C–C and C–N bond constructions, respectively

Recent advances in the electrochemical synthesis of organophosphorus compounds

• Babak Kaboudin,
• Milad Behroozi,
• Sepideh Sadighi and
• Fatemeh Asgharzadeh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 770–797, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.61

• et al. [59] reported an electrochemical method for the synthesis of phosphorylation of oxindoles and indolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline-6(5H)-ones using Cp2Fe through a radical addition/cyclization reaction at room temperature under argon gas. This research shows that this method is effective with various

Streamlined modular synthesis of saframycin substructure via copper-catalyzed three-component assembly and gold-promoted 6-endo cyclization

• Asahi Kanno,
• Ryo Tanifuji,
• Satoshi Yoshida,
• Sota Sato,
• Saori Maki-Yonekura,
• Kiyofumi Takaba,
• Jungmin Kang,
• Kensuke Tono,
• Koji Yonekura and
• Hiroki Oguri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 226–233, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.14

• hydroamination and temporary protection of nitrile and phenolic hydroxy groups. The synthetic strategy enabled the efficient synthesis of the substructure of saframycins bearing isoquinoline and THIQ units in just four steps from the modular assembly of the three components. We also found the unexpected

• expected to facilitate the 6-endo-dig cyclization to the distant sp-carbon on the alkyne, as demonstrated by Fujii and Ohno in their total synthesis of (−)-quinocarcin [52][53]. Secondly, the 6-endo-cyclized product 12, bearing the furan-conjugated isoquinoline-type framework, is predicted to be

• isoquinoline ring via gold(I)-mediated 6-endo hydroamination (Scheme 2). Treatment of 11 with a cationic gold complex, generated in situ from AuCl(PPh3) and AgNTf2 [47][48][49][56], with an excess amount of triethylamine in 1,2-dichloroethane at 65 °C, resulted in the intended regiocontrolled hydroamination

Synthesis of spiroindolenines through a one-pot multistep process mediated by visible light

• Francesco Gambuti,
• Jacopo Pizzorno,
• Chiara Lambruschini,
• Renata Riva and
• Lisa Moni

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2722–2731, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.230

• without further purification. Graphene oxide (GO) was purchased from Graphenea. All products were characterized by 1H,13C, 19F (when fluorine is present) NMR, IR and HRMS. General procedure for the one-pot synthesis of spiro[indole-isoquinoline] 3a: A solution of N-phenyltetrahydroisoquinoline (1 equiv

N-Boc-α-diazo glutarimide as efficient reagent for assembling N-heterocycle-glutarimide diads via Rh(II)-catalyzed N–H insertion reaction

• Grigory Kantin,
• Pavel Golubev,
• Alexander Sapegin,
• Alexander Bunev and
• Dmitry Dar’in

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1841–1848, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.136

• pyrazole derivatives (including indazole), benzimidazole, 1,2,3-triazole, indole, carbazole, indoline, quinazoline, and isoquinoline. Nevertheless, many heterocyclic motifs still remain beyond the attention of researchers. For example, glutarimides that incorporate tetrazole and 1,2,4-triazole substituents

Decarboxylative 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of amino acids for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds

• Xiaofeng Zhang,
• Xiaoming Ma and
• Wei Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1677–1693, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.123

• Pd-catalyzed Heck reaction to give products 26 in 65–78% yields (Scheme 16) [75]. The pyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline core installed by this route can be found in some natural products and synthetic compounds with antitumor, antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidizing, and other biological activities (Figure

Photoredox catalysis harvesting multiple photon or electrochemical energies

• Mattia Lepori,
• Simon Schmid and
• Joshua P. Barham

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1055–1145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.81

The unique reactivity of 5,6-unsubstituted 1,4-dihydropyridine in the Huisgen 1,4-diploar cycloaddition and formal [2 + 2] cycloaddition

• Xiu-Yu Chen,
• Hui Zheng,
• Ying Han,
• Jing Sun and
• Chao-Guo Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 982–990, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.73

• refluxing acetonitrile gave unique 2-azabicyclo[4.2.0]octa-3,7-dienes as major products and 1,3a,4,6a-tetrahydrocyclopenta[b]pyrroles as minor products via further rearrangement. Keywords: 1,4-dihydropyridine; electron-withdrawing alkyne; formal [2 + 2] cycloaddition; Huisgen's 1,4-dipole; isoquinoline

• ]. The well-known Huisgen 1,4-dipoles have a special kind of zwitterionic intermediates and are usually prepared by a nucleophilic addition of pyridine, quinoline, isoquinoline and other aza-arenes to electron-deficient alkynes [4][5][6][7][8]. The reactive Huisgen 1,4-dipoles have been widely employed

• ]naphthyridine and 2-azabicyclo[4.2.0]octa-3,7-diene derivatives. Results and Discussion Initially, the reaction conditions were briefly examined by using isoquinoline (1), dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate (DMAD, 2) and 5,6-unsubstituted 1,4-dihydropyridine 3 as standard reaction (Table 1). The three-component

Aromatic C–H bond functionalization through organocatalyzed asymmetric intermolecular aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction: a recent update

• Anup Biswas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 956–981, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.72

• -unsubstituted pyrroles/indoles 4/9 and isoquinoline-1,3,4(2H)-trione-1-imines 45 installing an aza-quaternary stereocenter in isoquinoline-1,3(2H,4H)-dione frameworks 46/47. The spinol-derived catalyst P15 was applied for the asymmetric induction through H-bonding interaction with the NH group of the

• using Nps-iminophosphonates as electrophiles. Aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction between indole and α-iminophosphonate. [2.2]-Paracyclophane-derived chiral phosphoric acids as catalyst. Aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction through ring opening of sulfamidates. Isoquinoline-1,3(2H,4H)-dione scaffolds as electrophiles

Pyridine C(sp²)–H bond functionalization under transition-metal and rare earth metal catalysis

• Haritha Sindhe,
• Malladi Mounika Reddy,
• Karthikeyan Rajkumar,
• Akshay Kamble,
• Amardeep Singh,
• Anand Kumar and
• Satyasheel Sharma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 820–863, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.62

• of pyridine at the C2 and C3 position (Scheme 35a). Further, during optimization when silver additives like Ag2CO3, Ag2O, and AgOAc were used the reaction resulted in the formation of isoquinoline derivative 181. In addition, the reaction showed high regioselectivity in the presence of unsymmetrical

Eschenmoser coupling reactions starting from primary thioamides. When do they work and when not?

• Lukáš Marek,
• Jiří Váňa,
• Jan Svoboda and
• Jiří Hanusek

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 808–819, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.61

• (9a) or decomposition (Scheme 3 and Table 1). Table 1 shows that in both polar aprotic solvents without base and thiophile (entries 1 and 4) only tricyclic 5,5-dimethyl-2-phenyl-4,5-dihydrothiazolo[4,5-c]isoquinoline (8a) was formed probably through unstable intermediate (7a). Compound 7a can be

• also briefly investigated, but the corresponding salt 6b was not isolated. The reaction in DMF without any additive (16 h, rt) also led to tricyclic 5,5-dimethyl-2-methyl-4,5-dihydrothiazolo[4,5-c]isoquinoline (8b) but its isolated yield was only 40% in addition to thioacetamide (19%) and unidentified

• lactam 2 structure involving the replacement of a quaternary carbon carrying two electron-donating methyl groups with an electron-withdrawing carbonyl group (2b → 3). The starting isoquinoline-1,3(2H,4H)-dione was prepared [31] from homophthalic acid and then brominated with NBS to give 4

Transition-metal-catalyzed domino reactions of strained bicyclic alkenes

• Austin Pounder,
• Eric Neufeld,
• Peter Myler and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 487–540, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.38

• [2.3.1]-bicyclic alkenes 158 for the synthesis of isoquinoline (160) or isoquinolone-fused bicycles 162 (Scheme 28) [74]. Compared to their previous C–H functionalization reaction (Scheme 27) [73], no ring opening was observed. This reaction with O-acetyl ketoximes was amenable to a variety of para

Transition-metal-catalyzed C–H bond activation as a sustainable strategy for the synthesis of fluorinated molecules: an overview

• Louis Monsigny,
• Floriane Doche and
• Tatiana Besset

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 448–473, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.35

• % yield, 19a, 84% yield), substituted pyrazole derivatives (6 examples, up to 55% yield, 19b, 55% yield), pyrimidine (19c, 31% yield) as well as quinoline and isoquinoline (19d and 19e, 65% and 66% yields, respectively). In addition, the trifluoromethylthiolated benzo[h]quinoline 20f was obtained in good

Formal total synthesis of macarpine via a Au(I)-catalyzed 6-endo-dig cycloisomerization strategy

• Jiayue Fu,
• Bingbing Li,
• Zefang Zhou,
• Maosheng Cheng,
• Lu Yang and
• Yongxiang Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1589–1595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.169

• ; macarpine; Introduction Benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids are an ancient and influential category of isoquinoline alkaloids, mainly found in Papaveraceae and Rutaceae (Scheme 1) [1][2]. According to their oxidation states, benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids can be divided into two types: partially

On drug discovery against infectious diseases and academic medicinal chemistry contributions

• Yves L. Janin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1355–1378, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.141

• , a subsequent virtual hit expansion/ligand-based screening starting with the isoquinoline-bearing inhibitors such as 6 and using the Ukrainian REAL database which contains 1.37 billion of compounds, actually failed to go beyond this chemical motif [83]. In any case, what would have been the results

Dienophilic reactivity of 2-phosphaindolizines: a conceptual DFT investigation

• Nosheen Beig,
• Aarti Peswani and
• Raj Kumar Bansal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1217–1224, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.127

• having electron-withdrawing groups (EWG) both at the 1 and 3-positions, namely 1,3-bis(ethoxycarbonyl)-1,3-azaphospholo[1,5-a]pyridine (1: R1 = R2 = COOEt) and its isoquinoline analogue, reacted with DMB and isoprene to give the [2 + 4] cycloadducts, in the latter case, regioselectively [11]. However, 2

Lewis acid-catalyzed Pudovik reaction–phospha-Brook rearrangement sequence to access phosphoric esters

• Jin Yang,
• Dang-Wei Qian and
• Shang-Dong Yang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1188–1194, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.123

• formaldehyde or ketone groups could also be transformed into the desired diphosphination products 3bm and 3bn in moderate to good yield. The generality of the system was further showcased by tolerating quinoline and isoquinoline groups, and the desired products 3bp and 3bq were afforded in a high yield

Facile and diastereoselective arylation of the privileged 1,4-dihydroisoquinolin-3(2H)-one scaffold

• Dmitry Dar’in,
• Grigory Kantin,
• Alexander Bunev and
• Mikhail Krasavin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1070–1078, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.109

• in the literature. While pondering possible solutions to fill this void, we drew inspiration in our recent success achieving direct Brønsted acid-catalyzed C-arylation of 4-diazo-isoquinoline-1,3-diones 7 [9] which are, in turn, obtainable via the Regitz diazo transfer reaction onto readily available

• products 9 (shown for ArH = benzene) and 3-isoquinoline byproducts 15. Conditions screening for the TfOH-promoted arylation of diazo substrate 10a.a Supporting Information Deposition Numbers 2158046 (for 9a), 2170881 (for 10c) and 2170877 (for 16) contain the supplementary crystallographic data for this

Electrochemical vicinal oxyazidation of α-arylvinyl acetates

• Yi-Lun Li,
• Zhaojiang Shi,
• Tao Shen and
• Ke-Yin Ye

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1026–1031, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.103

• product (29) in 84% yield. Upon treatment with piperidinium acetate and ethyl 3-(2-formylphenyl)acrylate (30), α-azidoketone (2) was transformed into isoquinoline product (31) in 58% yield [42]. Based on our reaction results and the known literature [13][14], a possible mechanism is proposed (Scheme 4

Iridium-catalyzed hydroacylation reactions of C1-substituted oxabenzonorbornadienes with salicylaldehyde: an experimental and computational study

• Angel Ho,
• Austin Pounder,
• Krish Valluru,
• Leanne D. Chen and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 251–261, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.30

• intermediates have found use in the total synthesis of (+)-norchelidonine (an isoquinoline alkaloid) [55], sertraline (an antidepressant) [56], and arnottin I (an anti-inflammatory) [57]. Although OBD 1 has been shown to undergo many different modes of reactivity in both a stereo- and enantioselective manner

Iron-catalyzed domino coupling reactions of π-systems

• Austin Pounder and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2848–2893, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.196

• would give the oxindole scaffold. Hydrogen abstraction would regenerate the reduced iron catalyst and produce the final product. Two years later, Zhou and co-workers expanded the reaction for the synthesis of substituted isoquinoline-1,3(2H,4H)-dione derivatives 64 (Scheme 10) [81]. Both laboratories

Me₃Al-mediated domino nucleophilic addition/intramolecular cyclisation of 2-(2-oxo-2-phenylethyl)benzonitriles with amines; a convenient approach for the synthesis of substituted 1-aminoisoquinolines

• Krishna M. S. Adusumalli,
• Lakshmi N. S. Konidena,
• Hima B. Gandham,
• Krishnaiah Kumari,
• Krishna R. Valluru,
• Satya K. R. Nidasanametla,
• Venkateswara R. Battula and
• Hari K. Namballa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2765–2772, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.186

• have always been recognized as the frameworks of interest in organic and medicinal fields. Particularly, aza-heteroarenes have attracted burgeoning interest in the research community owing to their structural and biological significance [1][2][3][4]. The isoquinoline template represents a huge family

• of aza-heterocycles with unparalleled structural diversity, and is considered to be associated with a huge range of applications in medicinal and materials sciences [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. 1-Amino substituted isoquinoline derivatives are extensively studied owing to their therapeutic

• of isoquinoline N-oxides [41][42], condensation of lithiated o‐tolualdehyde tert‐butylimines with nitriles [43], electrophilic cyclization of 2-alkynylbenzamides [44][45] or 2-alkynylbenzaldoximes [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54], oxidative C–H functionalizations (coupling) on aryl and heteroaryl

Silica gel and microwave-promoted synthesis of dihydropyrrolizines and tetrahydroindolizines from enaminones

• Robin Klintworth,
• Garreth L. Morgans,
• Stefania M. Scalzullo,
• Charles B. de Koning,
• Willem A. L. van Otterlo and
• Joseph P. Michael

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2543–2552, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.170

• conditions yielded pyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline products. A somewhat comparable cyclization of N-benzylenaminones has been reported under superbasic conditions [52], while base-induced pyrrole formation from N-(ethoxycarbonylmethyl)enamino esters (vinylogous urethanes) and the corresponding nitriles

Synthesis of new substituted 7,12-dihydro-6,12-methanodibenzo[c,f]azocine-5-carboxylic acids containing a tetracyclic tetrahydroisoquinoline core structure

• Agnieszka Grajewska,
• Maria Chrzanowska and
• Wiktoria Adamska

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2511–2519, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.168

• ; cyclization; multicomponent reactions; synthetic methods; tetrahydroisoquinoline; Introduction The tetrahydroisoquinoline moiety is the key structure in large number of natural and synthetic biologically important molecules. Among them, isoquinoline alkaloids constitute a large family of natural products

• transformed into racemic tetrahydroisoquinoline-1-carboxylic acids [19], simple isoquinoline alkaloids [20], and (+)-6,7-dimethoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline-1-carboxylic acid [21]. In this paper we report a straightforward synthesis of new strained tetracyclic tetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives