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

• -controlled regio- and enantioselective hydroalkylation reaction, enabling the divergent synthesis of chiral C2- and C3-alkylated pyrrolidines through desymmetrization of readily available 3-pyrrolines (Scheme 8) [31]. The cobalt catalytic system (CoBr₂ with modified bisoxazoline ligands) achieved asymmetric

• C(sp3)–C(sp3) coupling via distal stereocontrol, efficiently producing C3-alkylated pyrrolidines, while the nickel catalytic system afforded C2-alkylated pyrrolidines through a tandem alkene isomerization/hydroalkylation process. This method utilized readily accessible catalysts, chiral BOX ligands

• L9, and reagents, delivering enantioenriched 2-/3-alkyl-substituted pyrrolidines with excellent regio- and enantioselectivity (up to 97% enantiomeric excess). Radical-clock experiments and deuterium-labeled silane studies revealed that cobalt catalysis proceeded via irreversible Co–H migratory

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

• electrochemical synthesis of pyrrolidines 6a–f,j–n from the corresponding malonic acid monoesters 9a–f,j–n. An undivided electrochemical cell (5 mL, IKA ElectraSyn 2.0) was charged with starting carboxylic acid 9a–f,j–n (0.2–0.3 mmol) and Et4N–BF4 (0.025 M), followed by addition of MeCN (2.5 mL) and H2O (0.5 mL

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

• -dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one derivatives 26. Synthesis of polysubstituted pyrroles 27. Enantioselective synthesis of polysubstituted pyrrolidines 30 directed by the copper complex 29. Synthesis of 4,5-dihydropyrazoles 31. Synthesis of 2 arylisoindolinones 32. Synthesis of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines 33. Synthesis of

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

• difluoroiodobenzene 10 is formed in situ, which is activated by HF. Two possible mechanisms were given for the synthesis of pyrrolidines 14, which are the same two proposed for the synthesis of piperidines 6 (Scheme 1). Either an alkene-activated iodonium is formed or an activated electrophilic nitrogen is generated

• as the bromine source and Bu4NBr as a reaction promoter, racemic brominated pyrrolidines 54 were synthesised from a range of homoallylic sulfonamides 53 in excellent yields under mild conditions at room temperature. A mechanism was suggested by the authors (Scheme 29), whereby ligand exchange on PhI

• , Liu and Li reported intramolecular iodoamidiation of unsaturated amines in 2014 (Scheme 42) [30]. Using PIDA as an oxidant and KI as a source of iodide, iodinated pyrrolidines 80 were synthesized in excellent yields under mild conditions of CH2Cl2 at room temperature. A range of unsaturated amines

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

• cyclization of the indole derivatives is the most popular (Scheme 1a). For instance, the efficient synthesis of spiro[indoline-3,2′-pyrrolidines] [8][9][10] or spiro-isoxazoles [11] through different dearomatization processes has been reported. Recently, Ramana and Dothe have proposed an elegant gold

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

• many organocatalysts [3][4][5], natural products (e.g., the potent α-glucosidase inhibitor (−)-codonopsinol B) [6][7], and pharmaceutical drug molecules such as saxagliptin and ramipril (Figure 1) [8]. Accordingly, the development of methods to access substituted prolines and pyrrolidines is an

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

• compatible to give the respective five-membered pyrrolidines, except for that possessing a 2-nitro group 7. As discussed later with cyclic voltammetric studies, the electron density in the aryl rings does not seem to have a significant impact on the reaction. While benzyl sulfonamide 8 was productive under

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

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

• 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

• . In this study, initially, the conformational equilibrium of 3-fluoropyrrolidine and the corresponding cation were analyzed to establish a benchmark for selecting an appropriate theory level for subsequent calculations. Then, the different isomers of the 1,2- or 1,3-difluorinated pyrrolidines were

• each be subjected to quantum-chemical analysis. Results and Discussion In order to achieve the most accurate conformational depiction of the difluorinated pyrrolidines through density functional theory (DFT), a benchmark study was conducted. This study compares the crystallographic geometry of a

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

• anionic charge on the α-carbon connecting to the EWG. They are popular AMYs for 1,3-diploar [3 + 2] cycloaddition reactions with alkenes to generate pyrrolidines 1a–d with high regio- and stereoselectivities. They have been reported in a huge number (1,000+) of publications [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25

• (such as C60/C70 fullerenes) [56][57][58]. Other than amino esters and amino acids shown in Scheme 1, cyclic amines can also react with arylaldehydes to form B1-type semi-stabilized AMYs. In this context, the Seidel group reported the reactions of pyrrolidines 5 with arylaldehydes for the formation of

• AMYs B1 which then were reacted with nucleophiles to form C–H-functionalized pyrrolidines or subjected to the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with olefins to afford bicyclic compounds (Scheme 2A and B) [59][60]. We employed cyclic amines for the synthesis of spirooxindole-pyrrolidines 7a or 7b in good

N-Sulfenylsuccinimide/phthalimide: an alternative sulfenylating reagent in organic transformations

• Fatemeh Doraghi,
• Seyedeh Pegah Aledavoud,
• Mehdi Ghanbarlou,
• Bagher Larijani and
• Mohammad Mahdavi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1471–1502, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.106

• heterogeneous medium coming from H2O and toluene was beneficial for the progress of the transformation. In 2014, Denmark and Chi successfully synthesized a wide variety of pyrrolidines 99, piperidines 100, and azepanes via intramolecular sulfenoamination of olefins 98 (Scheme 40) [75]. The reduction of endo to

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

Synthesis, α-mannosidase inhibition studies and molecular modeling of 1,4-imino-ᴅ-lyxitols and their C-5-altered N-arylalkyl derivatives

• Martin Kalník,
• Sergej Šesták,
• Juraj Kóňa,
• Maroš Bella and
• Monika Poláková

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 282–293, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.24

• compounds’ true inhibitory activity and selectivity toward these relevant GH38 enzymes remain unknown [29]. In this regard, another promising strategy seems to be a modification of the pyrrolidine core at the C-1 position. For example, attaching an amide moiety directly to C-1 in pyrrolidines possessing the

• -benzyl group with the Cbz group, trityl ether hydrolysis, oxidation of the liberated OH group, and stereoselective addition of MeMgBr to the resulting aldehyde functionality. Hydrogenolysis of the Cbz protecting group in 13 followed by N-alkylation afforded pyrrolidines 14–16 which after acidic

• ) between the N-2-naphthylmethyl moiety of the inhibitors 28 and 31 and the active-site amino acid residues of dGMII. The most significant ΔElinker-E are marked. Synthesis of the key pyrrolidine 3 and the target pyrrolidines 7–10. Reagents and conditions: (a) MsCl, Et3N, CH2Cl2, 0 °C–rt, overnight, 80%; (b

Synthesis of piperidine and pyrrolidine derivatives by electroreductive cyclization of imine with terminal dihaloalkanes in a flow microreactor

• Yuki Naito,
• Naoki Shida and
• Mahito Atobe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 350–359, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.39

• , natural products, and biologically active compounds such as pergolide, scopolamine, morphine, nicotine, hygrine, and procyclidine (Figure 1) [2][3][4]. Therefore, a considerable number of synthetic approaches to pyrrolidines and piperidines have been investigated [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13

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

• reported [53]. In 2015, Kang and co-workers described a FeCl2-catalyzed tandem cyclization/cross-coupling reaction of alkyl iodides 1 with aryl Grignard reagents 2 to give arylmethyl-substituted pyrrolidines and tetrahydrofurans 3 in poor to excellent yield (Scheme 3) [54]. The concept of alkyl halide

Biological properties and conformational studies of amphiphilic Pd(II) and Ni(II) complexes bearing functionalized aroylaminocarbo-N-thioylpyrrolinate units

• Samet Poyraz,
• Samet Belveren,
• Sabriye Aydınoğlu,
• Mahmut Ulger,
• Abel de Cózar,
• Maria de Gracia Retamosa,
• Jose M. Sansano and
• H. Ali Döndaş

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2812–2821, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.192

• from LECO detection system. General procedure for ligands and complexes Synthesis of selected ligands (L1–L3): The known pyrrolidines and aroylaminocarbo-N-thioylpyrrolidine compounds (L1–L3) were synthesized according to published procedures [15]. Preparation of Ni(II) and Pd(II) complexes (L1-M, L2-M

Highly stereocontrolled total synthesis of racemic codonopsinol B through isoxazolidine-4,5-diol vinylation

• Lukáš Ďurina,
• Anna Ďurinová,
• František Trejtnar,
• Ľuboš Janotka,
• Lucia Messingerová,
• Jana Doháňošová,
• Ján Moncol and
• Róbert Fischer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2781–2786, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.188

• evaluated using several cell line models. Keywords: alkaloids; antiproliferative effect; codonopsinol B; diastereoselectivity; pyrrolidines; Introduction Codonopsinol B (1) is a polyhydroxylated pyrrolidine alkaloid isolated from the roots of the plant Codonopsis pilosula (Figure 1) [1]. This compound was

• were inactive towards the examined α-glucosidases. The enantiomer of 2 was the only one that still exhibited inhibitory activity against yeast α-glucosidase [2]. To our knowledge, the sole total synthesis of (−)-codonopsinol B and similar hydroxylated pyrrolidines to date was reported in the above

• mentioned work. Pyrrolidine 2 has been prepared before, however, it was not tested against glycosidases [6]. In addition, a very limited number of related 2-aryl-substituted hydroxylated pyrrolidines with a hydroxymethyl substituent at C-5 have been synthesized [7]. Along with (−)-codonopsinol B, five other

Advances in mercury(II)-salt-mediated cyclization reactions of unsaturated bonds

• Sumana Mandal,
• Raju D. Chaudhari and
• Goutam Biswas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2348–2376, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.153

• of Hg(OAc)2 [53]. The cyclized products 34A,B formed from starting material 33 were regiospecific and followed Markovnikoff’s type addition in the reaction [54][55][56][57]. It was also reported that the formation of α-phosphorylated pyrrolidines mostly takes place in regio- and stereoselective ways

Synthesis of 1-indolyl-3,5,8-substituted γ-carbolines: one-pot solvent-free protocol and biological evaluation

• Premansh Dudhe,
• Mena Asha Krishnan,
• Kratika Yadav,
• Diptendu Roy,
• Krishnan Venkatasubbaiah,
• Biswarup Pathak and
• Venkatesh Chelvam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1453–1463, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.101

• , alkyl N-arylideneglycinates have attracted much attention in recent years. For instance, the metal-catalyzed asymmetric [3 + 2] cycloaddition of ethyl N-benzylideneglycinates with electron-deficient alkenes has been reported to yield substituted pyrrolidines [30]. Recently, we reported the synthesis of

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

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

• azetidines Azetidine [76][77] has attracted less attention than aziridines, pyrrolidines and piperidines, among small and medium size aza-heterocycles, because there are no general methods for their preparation. However, four-membered nitrogen-containing heterocycles have recently found applicability in

• . Asymmetric synthesis of pyrrolidines The pyrrolidine ring is more represented within natural products than the 3- and 4-membered nitrogen-containing heterocycles. This molecular array is also found in drugs and other biologically active molecules. For this reason, there are numerous examples of synthetic

• methodologies for these compounds in the literature. In most cases, the pyrrolidine ring is formed from an amine with a hydrocarbon chain that also carries a functional group at the appropriate distance that allows the cyclization process to take place. In the case of substituted pyrrolidines, the

α,γ-Dioxygenated amides via tandem Brook rearrangement/radical oxygenation reactions and their application to syntheses of γ-lactams

• Mikhail K. Klychnikov,
• Radek Pohl,
• Ivana Císařová and
• Ullrich Jahn

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 688–704, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.58

• ; electron transfer; γ-lactams; tandem reactions; Introduction Nitrogen-containing heterocycles are widely distributed in biologically active compounds [1][2][3][4]. Saturated nitrogen heterocycles such as pyrrolidines [5][6][7][8][9], piperidines, pyrrolizidines or indolizidines [10][11][12][13][14][15][16

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

• variety of defensive alkaloids that makes them unpleasant for various predators [1]. Over 50 alkaloids have been characterized from ladybirds until now, including perhydroazaphenalenes, aliphatic and aromatic amines, piperidines, pyrrolidines, azamacrolides, dimeric alkaloids and homotropanes [2]. The

Convenient access to pyrrolidin-3-ylphosphonic acids and tetrahydro-2H-pyran-3-ylphosphonates with multiple contiguous stereocenters from nonracemic adducts of a Ni(II)-catalyzed Michael reaction

• Alexander N. Reznikov,
• Dmitry S. Nikerov,
• Anastasiya E. Sibiryakova,
• Victor B. Rybakov,
• Evgeniy V. Golovin and
• Yuri N. Klimochkin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2073–2079, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.174

• University, Leninskie Gory, 1, 119991, Mosсow, Russian Federation 10.3762/bjoc.16.174 Abstract A new synthetic strategy toward nonracemic phosphoryl-substituted pyrrolidines and tetrahydropyranes with three and five contiguous stereocenters is presented. Readily available β-keto phosphonates react with

• reactions with aldehydes yielding tetrahydropyranylphosphonates as individual stereoisomers. These nonracemic heterocycles containing phosphoryl moieties are useful for designing new pharmacologically active compounds. Keywords: asymmetric catalysis; Michael addition; phosphonates; pyrrolidines

• heterocycles. The present work reports on the synthesis of nonracemic phosphoryl-substituted pyrrolidines and tetrahydropyranes via Ni(II)-catalyzed asymmetric Michael addition of β-keto phosphonates to conjugated nitroolefins. Results and Discussion For the synthesis of nonracemic polysubstituted pyrrolidin-3

An overview on disulfide-catalyzed and -cocatalyzed photoreactions

• Yeersen Patehebieke

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1418–1435, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.118

• high regioselectivity [4]. Based on this reaction, Maruoka reported in 2016 that N-tosylvinylaziridines and alkenes could undergo cyclization reactions to generate pyrrolidines, catalyzed by substituted aryl disulfides under ultraviolet-light irradiation (Scheme 1) [5]. In 1997, Jung and co-workers