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

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

• achieved by a few-step transformation starting from brevicolline ((S)-1) isolated from natural sources (Scheme 2) [19]. When heating (S)-1 in benzoyl chloride, opening of the pyrrolidine ring and N-benzoylation occurred, resulting in compound 9. Debenzoylation of the latter to 10, followed by the catalytic

4-(1-Methylamino)ethylidene-1,5-disubstituted pyrrolidine-2,3-diones: synthesis, anti-inflammatory effect and in silico approaches

• Nguyen Tran Nguyen,
• Vo Viet Dai,
• Luc Van Meervelt,
• Do Thi Thao and
• Nguyen Minh Thong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 817–829, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.65

• , Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), Hanoi 10072, Vietnam 10.3762/bjoc.21.65 Abstract Pyrrolidine-2,3-diones are important intermediates in the synthesis of numerous nitrogen-containing heterocycles which possess a broad spectrum of biological and pharmacological activities. In this article

• , we report the synthesis of 4-(1-methylamino)ethylidene-1,5-disubstituted pyrrolidine-2,3-diones via a reversible transimination reaction between Schiff’ base (C=N) linkage-containing pyrrolidine-2,3-dione derivatives and methylamine with yields of 80 to 92%. In addition to nuclear magnetic resonance

• interactions also contribute to the stabilization of the ligand–iNOS complexes. In particular, 4-(1-methylamino)ethylidene-5-phenyl-1-(3-nitrophenyl)pyrrolidine-2,3-dione (5e) exhibited the strongest binding affinity (−9.51 kcal/mol) and demonstrated significant inhibitory activity against nitric oxide (NO

Origami with small molecules: exploiting the C–F bond as a conformational tool

• Patrick Ryan,
• Ramsha Iftikhar and
• Luke Hunter

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 680–716, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.54

• pyrrolidine moieties, the NH groups of which interact with the DNA bases and sugars, respectively. When fluorine is incorporated beta to each of the pyrrolidine nitrogens (i.e., 95, Figure 11), the pucker of each ring changes due to electrostatic attraction between the partially negative fluorine and the

• protonated amine. These conformational changes alter the DNA-binding mode, such that the pyrrolidine NH groups of 95 now interact with the DNA phosphates rather than the bases or the sugars [164]. Progressing now to a six-membered ring system, consider the scaffold, pipecolic acid (96, Figure 11) [165][166

Entry to 2-aminoprolines via electrochemical decarboxylative amidation of N‑acetylamino malonic acid monoesters

• Olesja Koleda,
• Janis Sadauskis,
• Darja Antonenko,
• Edvards Janis Treijs,
• Raivis Davis Steberis and
• Edgars Suna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 630–638, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.50

• F led to a drop in the pyrrolidine 6a yield due to the formation of a new side-product. We hypothesized that the side-product formation at increased amounts (>2.5 F) of passed charge results from undesired Shono oxidation of pyrrolidine 6a [10][11]. Indeed, CV studies of 6a revealed an irreversible

• feature at Ep = 1.78 V vs Ag/Ag+ (100 mV/s scan rate; see Figure 3A), and the electrolysis of pyrrolidine 6a under the optimized anodic decarboxylative cyclization conditions (entry 8, Table 1) afforded cyclic hemiaminal 12a (33% NMR yield), whose structure was proved by NMR experiments (Figure 3B). The

• KOH was not always beneficial. For instance, the anodic oxidation of benzamide 9k in the presence of KOH afforded pyrrolidine 6k only as a minor product and a mixture of 6k/10k/11k in 15:32:53 ratio, respectively, was formed. Finally, the loading of 9j was increased from 0.3 to 2.7 mmol to demonstrate

Formaldehyde surrogates in multicomponent reactions

• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Bernhard Westermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 564–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.45

• secondary amines such as piperidine or pyrrolidine afford an aminal or an iminium ion, in general under high temperature or pressure conditions, which is not the case for the AHA coupling [69][70]. Despite these cases, the absence of evidence in terms of iminium ion generation confirms that the AHA coupling

Photomechanochemistry: harnessing mechanical forces to enhance photochemical reactions

• Francesco Mele,
• Ana M. Constantin,
• Andrea Porcheddu,
• Raimondo Maggi,
• Giovanni Maestri,
• Nicola Della Ca’ and
• Luca Capaldo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 458–472, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.33

• using a mixture of 12.1 (0.2 mmol), NaI (1 equiv), Koser’s reagent, and Na2CO3 (each 4 equiv), in the presence of 100 wt % of SAOED, pyrrolidine 12.2 was isolated in 90% yield. As far as the mechanochemical setup is concerned, the authors milled the reaction mixture at 30 Hz in a 5 mL stainless-steel

Molecular diversity of the reactions of MBH carbonates of isatins and various nucleophiles

• Zi-Ying Xiao,
• Jing Sun and
• Chao-Guo Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 286–295, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.21

• Figure 1 and Figure 2, it can be found that the C=C bond is located in the unit of the pyrrolidine-2,5-dione, while the scaffold of indolin-2-one is connected via a C–C single bond with the unit of the pyrrolidine-2,5-dione. Therefore, an allyl rearrangement must proceed in the reaction process, which is

Cu(OTf)₂-catalyzed multicomponent reactions

• Sara Colombo,
• Camilla Loro,
• Egle M. Beccalli,
• Gianluigi Broggini and
• Marta Papis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 122–145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.7

• ] cycloaddition reaction with the nitroalkene produces the pyrrolidine XXVII, which then aromatizes by extrusion of HNO2 (Scheme 21) [38]. Substituted pyrrolidines 30 were achieved in an enantioselective form starting from amino acid esters, electron-poor olefins and 4-substituted-2-picolinaldehydes or 4

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

• reacted with aminoarylaldehydes 5 to form axially chiral 2-arylquinoline derivatives 6 (Scheme 2). Using the pyrrolidine derivative C2 as the most efficient organocatalyst, a range of quinoline derivatives were obtained in high yields and enantiomeric purities. The postulated mechanism consists of iminium

• process was inspired by the biocatalytic synthesis of aromatic polyketides by polyketide synthase from poly β-carbonyl substrates. Pyrrolidine-based organocatalyst C4 was able to promote a twofold atroposelective arene-forming 6-enolendo aldol condensation (Scheme 4). Sparr also realized a central-to

• transformation produced either the (Ra,Sa)-isomer using pyrrolidine tetrazole catalyst C6 or the (Sa,Sa)-diastereoisomer using quaternary ammonium salt C5 (Scheme 5). Catalyst-controlled formation of twofold and higher-order stereogenicity in axially chiral arenes was discussed in this account article [15

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

Discovery of ianthelliformisamines D–G from the sponge Suberea ianthelliformis and the total synthesis of ianthelliformisamine D

• Sasha Hayes,
• Yaoying Lu,
• Bernd H. A. Rehm and
• Rohan A. Davis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3205–3214, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.266

• from the amide proton linked the propyl-2-pyrrolidine moiety to the brominated acrylamide fragment and thus the full chemical structure of 4 was elucidated and assigned to ianthelliformisamine D. A refined literature search using Scifinder Scholar [16] revealed that compound 4 contains a novel scaffold

Hypervalent iodine-mediated intramolecular alkene halocyclisation

• Charu Bansal,
• Oliver Ruggles,
• Albert C. Rowett and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3113–3133, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.258

• pyrrolidine intermediates A can undergo further transformations (Scheme 10), depending on their structure and the iodane reagent being used. For example, higher yields of 3-fluoropiperidine products 6 were observed when using cyclic iodane reagents 21 and 22 (Scheme 10), which was suggested to be because a

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

• this FLP is situated within a five-membered ring. Using this structural insight, an asymmetric catalyst was subsequently designed by strategically modifying the pyrrolidine substituent (C5 in Figure 4) based on the most efficient FLP. The coupling reaction proposed in Scheme 3 was studied. In order to

• plot analysis reveals that the best candidate is F3_NB_C5_CF3, which is the catalyst based on the 2-borylbenzenamine scaffold, with a pyrrolidine substituent on the nitrogen atom and CF3 substituents on the boron. Through strategic modification of the Lewis base substituents, a stereoselective catalyst

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

• . Additionally, pyrrolidine, anazepane, and morpholine scaffolds successfully underwent the reaction. Another notable feature of this method is its high diastereoselectivity. All products were ultimately obtained as p-toluenesulfonic acid salts (Scheme 27). In 2021, Zhang et al. developed an electrochemical

Hypervalent iodine-mediated cyclization of bishomoallylamides to prolinols

• Smaher E. Butt,
• Konrad Kepski,
• Jean-Marc Sotiropoulos and
• Wesley J. Moran

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2455–2460, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.209

• the alkene and the amide increased from two to three atoms. In the latter case, cyclization at the amide nitrogen to form the pyrrolidine ring was favored over cyclization at the amide oxygen. A DFT study was undertaken to rationalize the change in mechanism of this cyclization process. In addition

• , reaction conditions were developed, and the scope of this cyclization studied. Keywords: cyclization; DFT; hypervalent iodine; mechanism; proline; Introduction Proline is one of the 20 DNA-encoded proteinogenic amino acids that are essential to life [1][2]. In addition, the pyrrolidine core is present in

• , the iodane moiety in 12 is eliminated by an intramolecular attack by the amide nitrogen to form the aziridinium 13. Finally, ring-opening by SN2 attack of trifluoroacetate leads to the final product 14 [20]. In this case, the kinetic pyrrolidine product is obtained due to the electron-withdrawing

Asymmetric organocatalytic synthesis of chiral homoallylic amines

• Nikolay S. Kondratyev and
• Andrei V. Malkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2349–2377, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.201

• –Sakurai reaction of allyltrimethylsilane with N-Fmoc aldimines. The pyrrolidine unit gem-methyl group conformational control in the squaramide-based catalyst [34]. The energetic difference between the transition states of the two proposed modes of the reaction (SN1 and SN2 mechanisms). The concerted SN2

Electrochemical radical cation aza-Wacker cyclizations

• Sota Adachi and
• Yohei Okada

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1900–1905, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.165

• ), with platinum (Pt) as a cathode. To our delight, a constant-current condition at 1 mA was productive, and the desired five-membered pyrrolidine 2 was obtained in high yield (Table 1, entry 2). During the screening of conditions, the addition of acetonitrile (CH3CN) was found to be effective, probably

• was in good accordance with the observation reported by Yoon (Table 1, entry 4). The use of acetic acid (AcOH) instead of TFA gave a slightly lower yield of the five-membered pyrrolidine 2 (Table 1, entry 5). Although a constant-potential condition at 1.8 V was also productive, the constant-current

• cyclization (Table 1, entry 7) and the six-membered piperidine 3, instead of the five-membered pyrrolidine 2, was obtained in excellent yield without electricity (Table 1, entry 8). Thus, it is proposed that the electrochemical aza-Wacker cyclization under acidic conditions proceeded via radical cations to

Harnessing unprotected deactivated amines and arylglyoxals in the Ugi reaction for the synthesis of fused complex nitrogen heterocycles

• Javier Gómez-Ayuso,
• Pablo Pertejo,
• Tomás Hermosilla,
• Israel Carreira-Barral,
• Roberto Quesada and
• María García-Valverde

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1758–1766, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.154

• benzodiazepine with different bases (caesium carbonate, sodium hydroxide). However, the complete cyclisation to the pyrrolobenzodiazepinone was not achieved, so the described three-step strategy starting from 2-nitrobenzoic acid (Ugi reaction/cyclization to pyrrolidine/reduction sequence) remains as a better

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

• . The oxetane compound 6 was further derivatized to incorporate a pyrrolidine moiety in presence of ammonia. Upon debenzylation at C-3, the target compound 7 was obtained in an 18% overall yield from 3. The pyrrolidino-oxetane derivative exhibited potent inhibition of Hedgehog signaling, comparable to

• /mL. Since the cytotoxicity of the parent 16-arylidene steroids was LC50 > 100 µg/mL, it was concluded that the presence of the pyrrolidine moiety was essential for the activity [28]. Additional derivatives have been reported on different steroidal positions [29] or with variations in the methodology

Regio- and stereochemical stability induced by anomeric and gauche effects in difluorinated pyrrolidines

• Ana Flávia Candida Silva,
• Francisco A. Martins and
• Matheus P. Freitas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1572–1579, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.140

• of the pyrrolidine ring in proline motifs has been found to induce significant conformational changes that impact the structure and biological roles of modified peptides and proteins. Vicinal difluorination of fluoroproline, for example, in (3S,4R)-3,4-difluoroproline, serves to mitigate the inherent

• conformational bias of the pyrrolidine ring by inducing stereoelectronic effects that attenuate this conformational bias. In this investigation, we present a quantumchemical analysis of the conformational equilibrium and effects that are induced in difluorinated pyrrolidines, with a particular focus on exploring

• Lewis interactions from a natural bond orbital perspective. Keywords: anomeric effect; fluoropyrrolidine; gauche effect; stereochemistry; Introduction The pyrrolidine ring structure is prevalent in numerous natural alkaloids and is an important feature of the proline and hydroxyproline residues that

Rapid construction of tricyclic tetrahydrocyclopenta[4,5]pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine via isocyanide-based multicomponent reaction

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

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1436–1443, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.126

• dihydropyridine ring connects with the pyrrolidine ring in cis-position. The 4-aryl group exists on the trans-position to the 2,3-pyrrolidine ring. The methoxycarbonyl group in the ring of the cyclopentadiene stretches to the cis-position of the 4-aryl group in the dihydropyridine ring. Thus, it can be assigned

• can be performed with a wide variety of substrates. The molecular structure of the compound 6g was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction method (Figure 2). The o-methoxyphenyl group exists on the trans-position of the fused pyrrolidine unit. The methoxycarbonyl group also exists on the cis

Enantioselective synthesis of β-aryl-γ-lactam derivatives via Heck–Matsuda desymmetrization of N-protected 2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrroles

• Arnaldo G. de Oliveira Jr.,
• Martí F. Wang,
• Rafaela C. Carmona,
• Danilo M. Lustosa,
• Sergei A. Gorbatov and
• Carlos R. D. Correia

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 940–949, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.84

• ). The total yields were determined to be 49% for (R)-baclofen hydrochloride (6) and 61% (R)-rolipram (5b) from starting pyrrolidine 1d. Determination of the absolute stereochemistry of the Heck adducts/lactams and rationalization of the enantioselectivity The absolute stereochemistry of the products was

• palladium(II)–N,N-ligand complex (II), to which the pyrrolidine substrate coordinates (III). Next, migratory insertion takes place generating the alkylpalladium species (IV), which upon a sequence of β-elimination (V) and hydride insertion leads to alkylpalladium intermediate (VI). Finally, upon

Synthesis and characterization of water-soluble C₆₀–peptide conjugates

• Yue Ma,
• Lorenzo Persi and
• Yoko Yamakoshi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 777–786, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.71

• , and HMBC spectra (Figures S3–S9, Supporting Information File 1), all peaks corresponding to the pyrrolidine part, linker part, and oligo-Lys part were assigned as shown in the chemical structure. In the sp2 region of 5a (Figure 6a, top), 17 signals (1C × 3 + 2C × 13) were observed similarly to the

Evaluation of the enantioselectivity of new chiral ligands based on imidazolidin-4-one derivatives

• Jan Bartáček,
• Karel Chlumský,
• Jan Mrkvička,
• Lucie Paloušová,
• Miloš Sedlák and
• Pavel Drabina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 684–691, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.62

• -position of the imidazolidine ring on the enantioselectivity of the reaction. Hence, we developed a ligand incorporating an unsubstituted pyrrolidine ring instead of the imidazolidine unit (Figure 1 – ligand IV). This structure characterises a 'proline-type' derivative, enabling its use not only in a

• IV structure arose from the ligand IIIb structure – the imidazolidin-4-one ring present at ligand IIIb was formally replaced by a pyrrolidine one. Here, we presume the comparable coordinating ability of both species of heterocycles. However, the pyrrolidine cycle of ligand IV does not contain alkyl

• significantly less enantioselective (37–55% ee) than the complex of ligand IIIb. Thus, the alkyl substitution at position 5 of the imidazolidin-4-one or pyrrolidine ring of ligands I–IV can be considered as a fundamental part of the ligand’s structure, which enables them to possess high enantioselectivity. All