Stereoselectively fluorinated N-heterocycles: a brief survey

• Xiang-Guo Hu and
• Luke Hunter

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2696–2708, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.306

• ]-Wittig rearrangement, a diastereoselective epoxidation, and a microwave assisted transannular epoxide opening reaction. It is also noteworthy that the starting material 55 contains an extraneous fluorine atom which is deleted during the synthetic sequence; this approach takes advantage of the often low

A concise enantioselective synthesis of the guaiane sesquiterpene (−)-oxyphyllol

• Martin Zahel and
• Peter Metz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2028–2032, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.239

• the total synthesis of the anticancer guaiane (−)-englerin A. A regio- and diastereoselective Co(II)-catalyzed hydration of the olefin and a transannular epoxide opening were used as the key reactions. Keywords: asymmetric synthesis; hydration; natural products; terpenes; transannular epoxide opening

• 3 can be utilized to generate the isopropyl group, and a regioselective transannular epoxide opening would construct the oxygen-bridged bicyclic hydroazulene framework. Alcohol 3 was traced back to the known epoxy enone 4 that already served as an intermediate for the total synthesis of 5 [6]. As

• product 11. In contrast to the smooth transannular epoxide opening [13][14] encountered during the synthesis of 5, an attempted complete cyclization of 10 to give 11 during acidic work-up of the methylenation reaction led to considerable decomposition. Fortunately, catalytic amounts of ytterbium triflate