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

• -arylindoles with α,β-unsaturated ketones, followed by Fe(II)-catalyzed spirocyclization of readily accessible oxime acetates. The method exhibits a broad substrate scope and good functional group tolerance. The synthesized spirocyclic compounds showed no significant antimicrobial activity. Keywords: α,β

• -unsaturated ketone; dearomatization; indole; spirocyclization; spiro[indoline-3,2'-pyrrolidine]; Introduction Spiro[indoline-3,2'-pyrrolidine] derivatives represent an important class of organic compounds found in both natural products (e.g., coerulescine [1], horsfiline [2], and elacomine [3]) and synthetic

• categorized into two main approaches. The first involves cascade reactions featuring the formation of multiple bonds, including a pivotal spirocyclization step. However, these strategies typically require pre-functionalized starting materials and often result exclusively in substituted oxindoles. For example

Copper-catalyzed domino cyclization of anilines and cyclobutanone oxime: a scalable and versatile route to spirotetrahydroquinoline derivatives

• Qingqing Jiang,
• Xinyi Lei,
• Pan Gao and
• Yu Yuan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 749–754, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.58

• stereocontrol (Scheme 1b) [24]. In 2023, Zeng et al. reported the first example of a chromium-catalyzed spirocyclization between anilines and cyclobutanones, providing direct access to medicinally relevant cyclobutane-annulated and structurally constrained spirotetrahydroquinoline (STHQ) scaffolds [25]. Given

The Groebke–Blackburn–Bienaymé reaction in its maturity: innovation and improvements since its 21st birthday (2019–2023)

• Cristina Martini,
• Muhammad Idham Darussalam Mardjan and
• Andrea Basso

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1839–1879, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.162

Entry to new spiroheterocycles via tandem Rh(II)-catalyzed O–H insertion/base-promoted cyclization involving diazoarylidene succinimides

• Alexander Yanovich,
• Anastasia Vepreva,
• Ksenia Malkova,
• Grigory Kantin and
• Dmitry Dar’in

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 561–569, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.48

• this protocol for spirocyclization and spiroheterocycle formation. The first step of the synthesis, the insertion of rhodium carbene into the O–H bond of 3-bromopropanol, was carried out under standard conditions in the presence of 0.05 mol % Rh2(esp)2 in dry DCM. 1H NMR spectroscopy was used to

• consequence, the significantly greater nucleophilicity of the nearest α-carbon atom. When an attempt was made to generate an anion from compound 25 under the action of a stronger base (t-BuOK/THF, 0 °C) in order to effect spirocyclization, only the formation of a complex multicomponent mixture was observed

Mechanisms for radical reactions initiating from N-hydroxyphthalimide esters

• Carlos R. Azpilcueta-Nicolas and
• Jean-Philip Lumb

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 346–378, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.35

• photoquenching experiments confirmed that 38 effectively quenched *Ir(ppy)3 under anhydrous conditions. Consequently, the SET reduction of 38, followed by fragmentation of 39 yielded α-oxy radical intermediate 40. Subsequently, the spirocyclization of 40 induced the dearomatization of the methoxy-substituted

• aromatic ring, forming intermediate 41, which was then oxidized to cation 42, thereby completing the photocatalytic cycle. The reaction proceeded by regioselective nucleophilic addition of H2O, accompanied by the loss of MeOH to deliver spirocycle 43. Notably, the dearomative spirocyclization of biaryl

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

• or 14, caused polarization of the S–N bond and produced an electrophilic intermediate I. Through the nucleophilic attack of the alkyne on I, cation II was generated, leaving Al-coordinated phthalimide/succinimide III. Finally, 4-endo-trig spirocyclization of II rendered the unstable intermediate IV

A novel spirocyclic scaffold accessed via tandem Claisen rearrangement/intramolecular oxa-Michael addition

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

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1649–1655, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.177

• Michael-type spirocyclization as detailed in Scheme 4. In two cases (7a and 7c), the major (syn) and minor (anti) diastereomers were separated chromatographically and characterized. In one case (7a), the structure of the major (syn) diastereomer was unequivocally confirmed by single-crystal X-ray

• spirocyclization of DAS with the formation of minor enol ether product 3a and its Claisen rearrangement. (b) Synthetic strategy investigated in this work. Initial attempt at Rh(II)-catalyzed O–H insertion/Claisen rearrangement. Rh2(esp)2-catalyzed O–H insertion reactions between various DAS 1 and phenols. Two-step

• , one-pot sequence of the Claisen rearrangement/intramolecular Michael-type spirocyclization of substrates 5a–l. The Claisen rearrangement product was not isolated. Scale from 0.3 to 0.9 mmol; pure major syn diastereomer was isolated and characterized in all cases; ain these examples, pure minor anti

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

• arylative spirocyclization reaction delivered product 40a in comparable yield, suggesting an initial in situ reduction of the Fe(III) precatalyst occurs in the early stages of the catalytic cycle. Although the mechanisms of Fe-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions are often complex [74][75] (Scheme 8), the

Recent advances in the asymmetric phosphoric acid-catalyzed synthesis of axially chiral compounds

• Alemayehu Gashaw Woldegiorgis and
• Xufeng Lin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2729–2764, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.185

• ., fredericamycin A and acutumine [99]), SPINOL-based ligands and catalysts [100], and organometallic complexes with important applications. The use of chiral catalysts for spirocyclization reactions brings asymmetry at the site of the spirocyclic center while tolerating different electronic and steric functional

Methodologies for the synthesis of quaternary carbon centers via hydroalkylation of unactivated olefins: twenty years of advances

• Thiago S. Silva and
• Fernando Coelho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1565–1590, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.112

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

Synthesis of spirocyclic scaffolds using hypervalent iodine reagents

• Fateh V. Singh,
• Priyanka B. Kole,
• Saeesh R. Mangaonkar and
• Samata E. Shetgaonkar

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1778–1805, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.152

• a variety of spirocyclic scaffolds. In 2008, Quideau and co-workers published a nice review article where they have described various spirocyclization reactions using hypervalent iodine reagents via dearomatizations of aromatic phenolic species [32]. This review article is quite useful for readers

• ) for spirocyclization of N-protected tyrosine 14 to spirolactone 16. The spirocyclization reaction was carried out in methanol using stoichiometric amounts of PIDA (15) and spirolactone 16 was isolated in 35% yield (Scheme 2). Probably, the cyclization reaction proceeded via dearomatizaion of phenolic

• reaction, active hypervalent iodine species was generated in situ by the oxidation of bis(iodoarene) 25 using mCPBA as terminal oxidant. In 2011, Kita and co-workers [72] investigated a more reactive µ-oxo bridged hypervalent iodine(III) reagent used in the spirocyclization of phenolic substrates 27 to

A survey of chiral hypervalent iodine reagents in asymmetric synthesis

• Soumen Ghosh,
• Suman Pradhan and
• Indranil Chatterjee

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1244–1262, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.107

• spirocyclization of naphthol carboxylic acid [34]. Later Birman et al. reported a new variation of a chiral I(V) reagent, namely 2-(o-iodoxyphenyl)oxazoline derivative 28 [35]. The reagent was applied to an asymmetric [4 + 2] Diels–Alder dimerization of phenolic derivatives 29 to construct tricyclic derivatives 30

• Ishihara et al. Oxidative spirocyclization applying precatalyst 11 developed by Ciufolini et al. Asymmetric hydroxylative dearomatization. Enantioselective oxylactonization reported by Fujita et al. Dioxytosylation of styrene (47) by Wirth et al. Oxyarylation and aminoarylation of alkenes. Asymmetric

Regiodivergent condensation of 5-alkoxycarbonyl-1H-pyrrol-2,3-diones with cyclic ketazinones en route to spirocyclic scaffolds

• Alexey Yu. Dubovtsev,
• Maksim V. Dmitriev,
• Аndrey N. Maslivets and
• Michael Rubin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 2179–2185, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.218

• the spirocyclization reaction. Our multiple attempts to carry out this transformation with the participation of enolates generated from cyclohexane-1,3-diones 8 (vinylogous carboxylates) in the presence of bases were unsuccessful. This reaction did not proceed in the presence of weak bases (such as

• spirocyclization via conversion of 1,3-diones 8 into mono-hydrazones. Indeed, while mono-imines of these ketones strongly prefer keto-enamine tautomeric form 13 over enol-imine form 14 (Scheme 4) [44][45], the corresponding hydrazones have been reported to favor enol-hydrazone tautomer 16 (Scheme 4) [46][47][48

• in tautomeric form 18 (Scheme 5). Surprisingly, an alternative direction of spirocyclization involving the reaction of tautomeric form 19 and affording lactam rings proceeded exclusively. The corresponding spiro[indole-3,2’-pyrroles] 21 were obtained exclusively in good yields (Scheme 5). The

Copper-catalyzed aerobic radical C–C bond cleavage of N–H ketimines

• Ya Lin Tnay,
• Gim Yean Ang and
• Shunsuke Chiba

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1933–1943, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.209

• found to undergo copper-catalyzed aerobic aromatic C–H amination (Scheme 3a) [52] or 1,4-aminooxygenation (spirocyclization) (Scheme 3b) [51], affording phenanthridine derivatives and azaspirocyclohexadienones, respectively, depending on the helical sense of the biaryl axis. Herein we report

• spirocyclization of the alkoxy radical D onto the benzene ring affords cyclohexadienyl radical F, oxygenation of which followed by C=O bond formation finally provides the oxaspirocyclohexadienone product 3a. Whereas, the oxidation of the benzylic radical B by the existing Cu(II) species to carbocation G and

The chemistry of isoindole natural products

• Klaus Speck and
• Thomas Magauer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2048–2078, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.243

• described for the biogenesis of (S)-reticuline (101) (compare Scheme 11). A de-aromatizing spirocyclization of 121 leads to (R)-orientalinone (122), which, after reduction of the ketone to the secondary alcohol 123, undergoes a [1,2]-alkyl migration with concomitant loss of water. Re-aromatization and

A construction of 4,4-spirocyclic γ-lactams by tandem radical cyclization with carbon monoxide

• Mitsuhiro Ueda,
• Yoshitaka Uenoyama,
• Nozomi Terasoma,
• Shoko Doi,
• Shoji Kobayashi,
• Ilhyong Ryu and
• John A. Murphy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1340–1345, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.151

• of this spiro structure is of continued interest for synthetic chemists. Recently, Comesse and Daïch reported the synthesis of 4,4-spirocyclic oxindole γ-lactams by tandem spirocyclization via nucleophilic halide displacement and amide coupling [4]. Shaw and co-workers reported the synthesis of 4,4

• -lactams in which CO was introduced as the lactam carbonyl moiety [17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Our approach consists of a sequence of aryl radical cyclization, radical carbonylation [24][25][26][27], and spirocyclization of the resulting acyl radical onto an azide group, which can give 4,4-spirocyclic γ

• 2a to 53% was achieved by changing the mediator from Bu3SnH to TTMSS [tris(trimethylsilyl)silane]. The tandem spirocyclization with CO was investigated with several 2-iodoaryl compounds having an allyl azide moiety. Results are summarized in Table 1. The reaction of N-(2-(azidomethyl)allyl)-N-(2-iodo

Synthetic approaches to multifunctional indenes

• Neus Mesquida,
• Sara López-Pérez,
• Immaculada Dinarès and
• Ermitas Alcalde

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2011, 7, 1739–1744, doi:10.3762/bjoc.7.204

• this route was not studied further (Scheme 2 and Supporting Information File 1). It should be mention that the propensity of several 3-substituted indenes, appropriately fitted with leaving groups, to undergo spirocyclization has been previously reported [26][27]. To shorten the multistep route A, an

A gold-catalyzed alkyne-diol cycloisomerization for the synthesis of oxygenated 5,5-spiroketals

• Sami F. Tlais and
• Gregory B. Dudley

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2011, 7, 570–577, doi:10.3762/bjoc.7.66

• 5,5-spiroketals, including cyclocondensation of ketone diols [6][7], the cycloisomerization of alkyne diols (Scheme 1) [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], oxidative spirocyclization of tetrahydrofuryl propanols [17][18][19][20], and others. Cyclocondensation of ketone diols is perhaps the most

• reaction time was intentionally extended to ensure complete desilylation. A second mechanistic alternative, path b, cannot be ruled out at this time. Path b involves gold-activation of the alkyne followed by 5-exo-dig nucleophilic attack of the acetal oxygen. Methanolysis of the acetal and spirocyclization