Total syntheses of highly oxidative Ryania diterpenoids facilitated by innovations in synthetic strategies

• Zhi-Qi Cao,
• Jin-Bao Qiao and
• Yu-Ming Zhao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2553–2570, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.198

• material. Key transformations included regioselective and stereoselective alkene epoxidation, organoselenium-mediated reductive cleavage of the α,β-epoxy ketone, and a hydroxy-directed stereospecific Mukaiyama hydration. These operations successfully introduced the C6 and C10 oxidation states, enabling the

Rapid access to the core of malayamycin A by intramolecular dipolar cycloaddition

• Yilin Liu,
• Yuchen Yang,
• Chen Yang,
• Sha-Hua Huang,
• Jian Jin and
• Ran Hong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2542–2547, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.196

• details). The following reductive cleavage of the N–O bond was carried out by Mo(CO)6 in refluxing CH3CN [39]. Subsequent oxidation of the resulting secondary alcohol with Dess–Martin periodinane (DMP) [40] afforded methyl ketone 20 in 53% yield for 2 steps. Moreover, the minor isomer 19b also underwent

Assembly strategy for thieno[3,2-b]thiophenes via a disulfide intermediate derived from 3-nitrothiophene-2,5-dicarboxylate

• Roman A. Irgashev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2489–2497, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.191

• reaction conditions to release thiolate species capable of reacting separately with ester 1 to form compound 2. Disulfide 3 was found to be an accessible and stable precursor of dimethyl 3-mercaptothiophene-2,5-dicarboxylate, a molecule that is suitable for S-alkylation. In this regard, reductive cleavage

• , but it was obtained as a mixture of ester forms, namely dimethyl and diethyl esters in ethanol, and dimethyl and diisopropyl esters in isopropanol. These results indicate that the reaction with alcohol solvents resulted in partial transesterification of the methoxycarbonyl groups, while reductive

• cleavage of the S–S bond and the subsequent S-alkylation reaction were successful. To suppress the side reaction and improve reduction efficiency, we next employed DMF as a polar aprotic solvent. In Table 2, entry 4, reduction of disulfide 3 in DMF at 75 °C with NaBH4 was complete within 15 min. The excess

An Fe(II)-catalyzed synthesis of spiro[indoline-3,2'-pyrrolidine] derivatives

• Elizaveta V. Gradova,
• Nikita A. Ozhegov,
• Roman O. Shcherbakov,
• Alexander G. Tkachenko,
• Larisa Y. Nesterova,
• Elena Y. Mendogralo and
• Maxim G. Uchuskin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2383–2388, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.183

• pathway (Scheme 4). Initial Fe(II)-mediated reductive cleavage of the N–O bond in the ketoxime acetate generates an iminyl radical. This is followed by a 5-exo-trig cyclization to form a carbon-centered radical. Final single-electron oxidation by Fe(III) delivers the desired spirocyclic product. All

C2 to C6 biobased carbonyl platforms for fine chemistry

• Jingjing Jiang,
• Muhammad Noman Haider Tariq,
• Florence Popowycz,
• Yanlong Gu and
• Yves Queneau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2103–2172, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.165

Enantioselective desymmetrization strategy of prochiral 1,3-diols in natural product synthesis

• Lihua Wei,
• Rui Yang,
• Zhifeng Shi and
• Zhiqiang Ma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1932–1963, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.151

• monobenzoate 142 in 94% yield along with 4% yield of its diastereomer (dr = 24:1). Following a four-step conversion of 142 to epoxide 143, reductive cleavage produced a diol intermediate, which was subjected to chemoselective glycosylation with compound 144 to provide compound 145. After a four-step

• , which underwent DDQ-mediated oxidative cyclization to yield compound 254. After a two-step conversion, the resulting compound 255 underwent reductive cleavage of the tetrahydrofuran ring with Et3SiH/TFA, giving compound 256. Exposure of 256 to MeI in THF provided the corresponding Nb-methiodide salt

Synthetic approach to borrelidin fragments: focus on key intermediates

• Yudhi Dwi Kurniawan,
• Zetryana Puteri Tachrim,
• Teni Ernawati,
• Faris Hermawan,
• Ima Nurasiyah and
• Muhammad Alfin Sulmantara

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1135–1160, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.91

• , reductive cleavage of the chiral auxiliary using a combination of LDA and BH3·NH3 provided the target molecule 82 in a 76% yield. The authors emphasized that the Theodorakis’ C3–C11 fragment 82 of borrelidin was synthesized via a concise 8-step route, achieving a 36% overall yield from the chiral pool

Efficient one-step synthesis of diarylacetic acids by electrochemical direct carboxylation of diarylmethanol compounds in DMSO

• Hisanori Senboku and
• Mizuki Hayama

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2392–2400, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.203

• dioxide; Introduction Electrochemical reduction of benzyl alcohol derivatives can induce reductive cleavage of a C(sp3)–O bond [1] at the benzylic position to generate the corresponding benzylic anion species. This protocol has been frequently applied to electrochemical carboxylation [2][3][4][5][6][7][8

• mandel acetates [14], respectively. Electrolysis of styrene oxide and related 2-phenylcyclic ethers in the presence of carbon dioxide also induced carboxylation at the benzylic position by reductive cleavage of a C(sp3)–O bond to give the corresponding ω-hydroxy-2-phenylalkanoic acids [15][16]. In

Natural resorcylic lactones derived from alternariol

• Joachim Podlech

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

• reductive cleavage of the C4a–O5 bond in alternariol derivatives leads to biaryls which are thus no longer lactones, the respective derivatives are obviously derived from alternariol and their inclusion in this review seems to be reasonable. Even derivatives downstream in the alternariol biosynthesis, which

• lack the carboxylic acid are included (Figure 13). Altenusin (47) is biosynthetically obtained through reductive cleavage of 4-hydroxyalternariol (19) and it was already mentioned in one of the first reports on Alternaria metabolites when it was isolated from Alternaria tenuis (synonymous to A

Methyltransferases from RiPP pathways: shaping the landscape of natural product chemistry

• Maria-Paula Schröder,
• Isabel P.-M. Pfeiffer and
• Silja Mordhorst

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1652–1670, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.147

• binding domain (CBD) at the N-terminus and an rSAM domain at the C-terminus (Figure 9) [119]. In addition to its different enzyme structure, a distinct mechanism of methylation than the classical SN2 mechanism is employed. Reductive cleavage of SAM generates a 5'-deoxyadenosyl (dAdo) radical, which

One-pot nucleophilic substitution–double click reactions of biazides leading to functionalized bis(1,2,3-triazole) derivatives

• Hans-Ulrich Reissig and
• Fei Yu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1399–1407, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.101

• carbohydrate mimetics, but the reductive cleavage of the 1,2-oxazine rings to aminopyran moieties did not proceed cleanly with these compounds. Keywords: alkynes; azides; copper catalysis; nucleophilic substitution; 1,2-oxazines; Introduction The concept of click reactions [1][2], in particular, the

• other triazolyl-substituted aminopyran derivatives we encountered similar selectivity problems due to the sensitivity of benzylic bonds to the applied hydrogenolysis conditions [59]. Despite of the discouraging results with model compound 23 we nevertheless examined the reductive cleavage of bis(1,2,3

Synthesis of ether lipids: natural compounds and analogues

• Marco Antônio G. B. Gomes,
• Alicia Bauduin,
• Chloé Le Roux,
• Romain Fouinneteau,
• Wilfried Berthe,
• Mathieu Berchel,
• Hélène Couthon and
• Paul-Alain Jaffrès

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1299–1369, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.96

• , a reductive cleavage of the acetal and the reduction of the two ester functions produced 2-O-benzyl-ᴅ-threitol (25.3) in nearly quantitative yield. The acetalization of the gem-diol produce 25.4 that was deprotonated with KH and alkylated with hexadecyl mesylate to produce 25.5. The deprotection of

• mono-unsaturated lipid chain [142]. This synthesis starts from ᴅ-mannitol that was protected with 4-methoxybenzaldehyde to produce 32.1 (Figure 32) [143]. Then, the methylation of the two alcohol functions produced 32.2. A regioselective reductive cleavage of the acetal was achieved by using either

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

Combining the best of both worlds: radical-based divergent total synthesis

• Kyriaki Gennaiou,
• Antonios Kelesidis,
• Maria Kourgiantaki and
• Alexandros L. Zografos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1–26, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.1

• –Giese coupling, followed by reductive cleavage of the lactone moiety with LiI. Enzymatic hydroxylation by the BM3 MERO1 variant worked equally well to provide the 3-hydroxylated product 46. Photochemical radical decarboxylation of the formed mercaptopyridine derivative and radical capture by iodoform

Total synthesis of grayanane natural products

• Nicolas Fay,
• Rémi Blieck,
• Cyrille Kouklovsky and
• Aurélien de la Torre

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1707–1719, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.181

• by diastereoselective cycloaddition followed by C15–C16 epoxidation with m-CPBA. Reductive cleavage of the O–O bond by Zn/AcOH treatment afforded epoxide 53 as a single diastereomer in two steps and 65% yield. The correct bicyclo[3.2.1]octane was obtained by Wagner–Meerwein epoxide rearrangement

Preparation of an advanced intermediate for the synthesis of leustroducsins and phoslactomycins by heterocycloaddition

• Anaïs Rousseau,
• Guillaume Vincent and
• Cyrille Kouklovsky

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1385–1395, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.143

• on the synthesis and the coupling of three main fragments. The central fragment was synthesized via a regio-and stereoselective nitroso Diels–Alder reaction with an enol phosphate, followed by reductive cleavage of the phosphate to the ketone 11b. Coupling studies of this fragment with the lactone

Reductive opening of a cyclopropane ring in the Ni(II) coordination environment: a route to functionalized dehydroalanine and cysteine derivatives

• Oleg A. Levitskiy,
• Olga I. Aglamazova,
• Yuri K. Grishin and
• Tatiana V. Magdesieva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1166–1176, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.121

• ). Notably, insertion of the second COOR group in the starting cyclopropane complex 4 completely suppresses this reaction channel: intramolecular cyclization of the anions formed in the reductive cleavage of the three-membered ring was not observed. This may be attributed to the decreased nucleophilicity as

Organocatalytic asymmetric nitroso aldol reaction of α-substituted malonamates

• Ekta Gupta,
• Narendra Kumar Vaishanv,
• Sandeep Kumar,
• Raja Krishnan Purshottam,
• Ruchir Kant and
• Kishor Mohanan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 217–224, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.25

• ). Disappointingly, the reactions carried out by varying the α-substitution did not afford the desired product. In order to demonstrate the synthetic utility of the oxyaminated compounds, the reductive cleavage of the N–O bond was attempted under Zn/AcOH conditions. Pleasingly, the reaction afforded the aniline

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

• the expected high syn diol diastereoselectivity (Scheme 1). The obtained anti,syn-(hydroxyamino)alkenol 4 will be then subjected to reductive cleavage of the N–O bond. Next, a key intermediate epoxide 5 with the desired syn (threo) configuration between the hydroxy group and the epoxide oxygen could

The ethoxycarbonyl group as both activating and protective group in N-acyl-Pictet–Spengler reactions using methoxystyrenes. A short approach to racemic 1-benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids

• Marco Keller,
• Karl Sauvageot-Witzku,
• Franz Geisslinger,
• Nicole Urban,
• Michael Schaefer,
• Karin Bartel and
• Franz Bracher

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2716–2725, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.183

• should lead to an N-methyl group and to reductive cleavage of the carbonate-protected phenol(s); route B is based on treatment with an alkyllithium compound [26], which should remove all ethoxycarbonyl groups and provide N-nor analogues of the products obtained in route A (Figure 3). The required

Novel library synthesis of 3,4-disubstituted pyridin-2(1H)-ones via cleavage of pyridine-2-oxy-7-azabenzotriazole ethers under ionic hydrogenation conditions at room temperature

• Romain Pierre,
• Anne Brethon,
• Sylvain A. Jacques,
• Aurélie Blond,
• Sandrine Chambon,
• Sandrine Talano,
• Catherine Raffin,
• Branislav Musicki,
• Claire Bouix-Peter,
• Loic Tomas,
• Gilles Ouvry,
• Rémy Morgentin,
• Laurent F. Hennequin and
• Craig S. Harris

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 156–165, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.16

• -opening of the triazole moiety through a Dimroth rearrangement process affording 20 (reaction becomes instantly bright red); c) reduction of diazonium species to afford intermediate 21, observed by UV-LC–MS; and finally d) reductive cleavage of the -O–NH- bond, usually carried out under catalytic

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

• to intramolecular dipolar cycloaddition to give racemic adducts (±)-13 and (±)-14, with good yields. The synthesis was complete according to the procedure used by Gössinger [25]. Thus, the reductive cleavage of the N–O bond in the presence of Raney-Ni and hydrogen provided the bicyclic alcohols

Synthesis of 4-substituted azopyridine-functionalized Ni(II)-porphyrins as molecular spin switches

• Jannis Ludwig,
• Tobias Moje,
• Fynn Röhricht and
• Rainer Herges

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2589–2597, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.210

• /def2SVP level of theory (for details see Supporting Information File 1) revealed that the thermodynamically most stable structure is a trans configuration, where each of the pyridine units coordinate the nickel of the opposite porphyrin. Reductive cleavage of 1g by catecholeborane yields the

Synthesis of new fluorescent molecules having an aggregation-induced emission property derived from 4-fluoroisoxazoles

• Kazuyuki Sato,
• Akira Kawasaki,
• Yukiko Karuo,
• Atsushi Tarui,
• Kentaro Kawai and
• Masaaki Omote

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1411–1417, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.117

• diketone (Scheme 5). As an alternative method to synthesize F-BKIs 9, we turned our attention to the ring-opening reaction of isoxazoles. The reductive cleavage of the N–O bond in isoxazoles can be achieved by transition metals or their complexes to give the corresponding enaminoketones [35][37

• in the aggregated state and exhibited a redshift in the emission intensity. We also achieved the first synthesis of α-fluorinated boron ketoiminates (F-BKIs) by the reductive cleavage of the N–O bond in 4-fluorinated isoxazoles and demonstrated that F-BKIs exhibited AIE property similarly to their

Synthesis of 3-substituted isoxazolidin-4-ols using hydroboration–oxidation reactions of 4,5-unsubstituted 2,3-dihydroisoxazoles

• Lívia Dikošová,
• Júlia Laceková,
• Ondrej Záborský and
• Róbert Fischer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1313–1319, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.112

• readily obtained through the reductive cleavage of benzoylated isoxazolidines, employing the Lewis acid-catalyzed SN reaction with triethylsilane as the hydride source (Scheme 1). For this reason, the benzoates 6a and 6b were readily prepared from the corresponding 2,3-dihydroisoxazoles 5a and 5b

• showed the applicability of the reductive cleavage of anomeric isoxazolidinyl carboxylates in the synthesis of the respective 5-unsubstituted 4-hydroxyisoxazolidines, this pioneering approach mainly suffered from a large number of synthetic steps starting from 2,3-dihydroisoxazoles, leading to the target

• 8b resulted only in a reductive cleavage of the N–O bond. A successful debenzylation was achieved in a two-step procedure using 2,2,2-trichloroethyl chloroformate (TrocCl). However, the protection of the hydroxy group was required first (for the reaction of 8b with benzoyl chloride, see Supporting