Oxetanes: formation, reactivity and total syntheses of natural products

• Peter Gabko,
• Martin Kalník and
• Maroš Bella

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1324–1373, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.101

Salen–scandium(III) complex-catalyzed asymmetric (3 + 2) annulation of aziridines and aldehydes

• Linqiang Wang and
• Jiaxi Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1087–1094, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.86

• require dineopentyl aziridine-2,2-dicarboxylates to realize high enantioselectivity, while the synthesis of the chiral ligand N,N'-dioxide requires multiple steps. Herein, we present a convenient highly diastereo- and enantioselective synthesis of dialkyl 2,5-diaryl-1-sulfonyloxazolidine-2,2

• 35 h in the presence of commercially available Sc(OTf)3 (0.01 mmol, 5 mol %), only a trace amount of product 3aa was observed (Table 1, entry 1). When chiral ligand L1 (0.01 mmol) was added, a trace amount of product 3aa was obtained with 17% ee (Table 1, entry 2). The enantioselectivity increased to

• time. The yield was improved from 21% to 29% to 34% with similar enantio- and diastereoselectivities at 25 °C, 45 °C, and 55 °C, respectively, but the enantioselectivity decreased slightly at 55 °C (Table 1, entries 15–17). Further extending the reaction time to 48 h at 55 °C, resulted in an increased

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

Pd-Catalyzed asymmetric allylic amination with isatin using a P,olefin-type chiral ligand with C–N bond axial chirality

• Natsume Akimoto,
• Kaho Takaya,
• Yoshio Kasashima,
• Kohei Watanabe,
• Yasushi Yoshida and
• Takashi Mino

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1018–1023, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.83

• asymmetric allylic amination of allylic esters with isatin derivatives 11 as nucleophiles. The reaction proceeds efficiently, yielding the products (S)-13 with good-to-high enantioselectivity. A scale-up reaction was also successfully conducted at a 1 mmol scale. Additionally, when malononitrile was added to

• product (S)-13a in 72% yield with 87% ee (Table 1, entry 1). In contrast, the reaction with (−)-7 afforded (S)-13a in significantly lower yield, albeit with an enantioselectivity similar to that of the reaction with 6 (Table 1, entry 2). This result clarifies that (−)-7, with a racemization half-life of

• product in 99% yield, although the enantioselectivity slightly decreased compared to the reaction using K2CO3 (see Table 1, entry 1 vs entry 3). The use of Cs2CO3 resulted in a significant drop in the yield (Table 1, entry 4), whereas NaOAc improved the yield but slightly lowered the enantioselectivity

Recent total synthesis of natural products leveraging a strategy of enamide cyclization

• Chun-Yu Mi,
• Jia-Yuan Zhai and
• Xiao-Ming Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 999–1009, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.81

• 0.4% amount of cat. 1 provided adduct 30 in 72% yield with 92% enantioselectivity, and the reaction could be scaled up to decagrams. Subsequent decarboxylation and recrystallization of the resulting ketone 31 yielded an enantiopure product (99% ee), which serves as a versatile intermediate for the

• . Optimization studies identified the tetraphenyl-substituted PyBox ligand L1 as particularly effective in controlling the stereochemistry of the polycyclization, yielding high enantioselectivity for most substrates. As illustrated in Scheme 5, tertiary enamides with a tethered electron-rich arene could undergo

• -silyl substituted cyclopentanone 41, and acyl chloride 42 produced enamide 43. The polycyclization then took place under the catalysis of Cu(OTf)2/L3 and In(OTf)3, delivering tricyclic product 44 in high yield with excellent enantioselectivity. Despite formation of multiple diastereomers due to the

A convergent synthetic approach to the tetracyclic core framework of khayanolide-type limonoids

• Zhiyang Zhang,
• Jialei Hu,
• Hanfeng Ding,
• Li Zhang and
• Peirong Rao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 926–934, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.75

• achieved by using (R)-BTM (19), furnishing acetate 18 with satisfactory efficiency and enantioselectivity (37% yield, 85% ee). Finally, iodination of 18 employing Johnsen’s protocol (I2, pyridine) [39] provided α-iodoenone 13 in 89% yield. On the other hand, the synthesis of acetal aldehyde 14 commenced with

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

• , the Shu group developed a catalyst-controlled regioselective and enantioselective hydroamination reaction of electron-deficient alkenes (Scheme 7) [30]. By efficiently regulating the regioselectivity and enantioselectivity of alkene 23 hydrometallation through catalytic systems, they overcame the

• obtained with exclusive regioselectivity and excellent enantioselectivity. Employing a nickel catalyst, α-chiral β-amino acid derivatives 27 were synthesized with single regioselectivity and outstanding enantioselectivity. In the same year, Rong and co-workers reported a highly efficient catalyst

• 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

Regioselective formal hydrocyanation of allenes: synthesis of β,γ-unsaturated nitriles with α-all-carbon quaternary centers

• Seeun Lim,
• Teresa Kim and
• Yunmi Lee

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 800–806, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.63

• for the in situ generation of hydrogen cyanide (Scheme 1a). This method achieved high regioselectivity and enantioselectivity, highlighting the potential of allene hydrocyanation for the synthesis of complex nitrile-containing products. In another approach, the Minakata group used electrophilic

New advances in asymmetric organocatalysis II

• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 766–769, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.60

• describes the enantioselective Michael addition of pyrazoline-5-ones to α,β-unsaturated ketones. The enantioselectivity and chemical efficiency of this transformation were achieved with a cinchona-alkaloid-derived primary-amine–Brønsted acid composite [22]. A good demonstration of how organocatalysis

Development and mechanistic studies of calcium–BINOL phosphate-catalyzed hydrocyanation of hydrazones

• Carola Tortora,
• Christian A. Fischer,
• Sascha Kohlbauer,
• Alexandru Zamfir,
• Gerd M. Ballmann,
• Jürgen Pahl,
• Sjoerd Harder and
• Svetlana B. Tsogoeva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 755–765, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.59

• hydrocyanation via a calcium isocyanide complex, whereas the rate-limiting step is that which recovers the calcium catalyst and replaces the TMS-bound product from the catalyst. While our experimental data demonstrate enantioselectivity values as high as 89% under certain conditions, the overall

• enantioselectivity achieved with the calcium catalyst remains modest, mainly due to competing pathways for the Z- and E-hydrazone isomers leading to opposite enantiomers. The experimental results confirm these computational proposals. Keywords: asymmetric synthesis; calcium–BINOL phosphate catalysis; hydrocyanation

• reaction of the chiral ligand 5 with Ca(OiPr)2, varying the ratio from 2:1 to 6.6:1, respectively (Table 2, entries 1–3). The amount of calcium salt added influences the reaction yield, which decreases when the fraction of Ca(OiPr)2 is lowered (Table 2, entry 3), while the good enantioselectivity remains

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

Recent advances in allylation of chiral secondary alkylcopper species

• Minjae Kim,
• Gwanggyun Kim,
• Doyoon Kim,
• Jun Hee Lee and
• Seung Hwan Cho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 639–658, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.51

• asymmetric allylic alkylation (AAA) has been remarkable since its initial development in 1995, when Bäckvall and van Koten first reported moderate enantioselectivity using Grignard reagents with allylic acetates [21][22]. This discovery triggered extensive research endeavors, significantly expanding the

• excellent enantioselectivity, although in moderate yield. Notably, the presence of a chloride anion in the reaction mixture proved crucial for high enantioselectivity, leading to the discovery that a 1:1 complex of copper(I) chloride and (S,S)-Ph-BPE (L1) could serve as an optimal catalyst system. Further

• optimization revealed LiOt-Bu and diphenyl phosphate as the optimal metal alkoxide and leaving group, delivering the desired product 32 in high yield and high enantioselectivity at room temperature with only 2 mol % catalyst loading. The scope of this transformation proved to be remarkably broad. In addition

Asymmetric synthesis of β-amino cyanoesters with contiguous tetrasubstituted carbon centers by halogen-bonding catalysis with chiral halonium salt

• Yasushi Yoshida,
• Maho Aono,
• Takashi Mino and
• Masami Sakamoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 547–555, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.43

• product was obtained in moderate diastereo- and enantioselectivity, however, chloronium salt 9c did not show significant catalytic activity, and the product was formed in nearly the same yield as that obtained without a catalyst with low stereoselectivity. From these observations, bromonium salt 9a was

• found to be optimal in enantioselectivity, and iodonium salt 9b was superior in terms of diastereoselectivity. These results can be explained by the strength of halogen bonding: generally, iodo-substituted compounds form stronger halogen bonding with Lewis bases than chloro-substituted ones [1]. Notably

• amide moiety and with almost no enantioselectivity. Although the addition of a catalytic amount of 9e accelerated the reaction, the same diastereomer of 17b as the major product was obtained as for the reaction without a catalyst, which shows the importance of halonium salt moieties in our catalysts

Organocatalytic kinetic resolution of 1,5-dicarbonyl compounds through a retro-Michael reaction

• James Guevara-Pulido,
• Fernando González-Pérez,
• José M. Andrés and
• Rafael Pedrosa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 473–482, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.34

• its enantioselectivity, aliquots of the reaction mixture were taken at defined time intervals and analyzed by HPLC using a chiral column after passing them through a short silica gel pad. Some interesting conclusions can be made from the data in Table 1. Firstly, the retro-Michael reaction occurs, to

• , enantioselectivity increased until a specific time, and after that, the enantiomeric ratio decreased (compare entries 1–3 and 21–23 in Table 1). The interesting result is that the major enantiomer in the enantioenriched mixture is now the opposite of the one obtained when the ketone and the α,β-unsaturated aldehyde

• provide the highest enantiomeric ratio. The influence of catalyst, co-catalyst, and temperature on the reaction progress and enantioselectivity was further investigated. Different essays using 0.028 M toluene solutions were carried out, and the results are summarized in Table 2. The reaction also occurs

Beyond symmetric self-assembly and effective molarity: unlocking functional enzyme mimics with robust organic cages

• Keith G. Andrews

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 421–443, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.30

• cyclodextrin) can promote enantioselectivity [76], although turnover from augmented macrocycles is not always achieved [26]. The affinity of generic hydrophobic pockets for a hydrophobic product often leads to product inhibition, since binding a single large product is entropically favored over binding two

Dioxazolones as electrophilic amide sources in copper-catalyzed and -mediated transformations

• Seungmin Lee,
• Minsuk Kim,
• Hyewon Han and
• Jongwoo Son

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 200–216, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.12

• lactams in high yields and excellent enantioselectivities (2a, 2b, and 2d). It was observed that the steric environment affected both reactivity and enantioselectivity (2c). Six-membered lactams featuring propargylic (2e) and alkenyl (2f) motifs were also obtained with excellent regioselectivity and

• enantioselectivity. Furthermore, a lactam containing a quaternary carbon center (2g) was prepared. However, a lower enantioselectivity was observed for product 2h due to the similar steric environment of the two alkyl substituents. As shown in Figure 1, a catalytic cycle was proposed for the intramolecular C–H

• amide sources, were employed in this transformation. As shown in Scheme 8, several dioxazolones containing electron-rich substituents were transformed into the desired products with excellent enantioselectivity (23a and 23b). Otherwise, the electron-poor substituent-containing dioxazolones showed

Recent advances in electrochemical copper catalysis for modern organic synthesis

• Yemin Kim and
• Won Jun Jang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 155–178, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.9

• enantioselective C–H alkynylation of ferrocene carboxamides with terminal alkynes by using Cu/BINOL and an electrocatalytic system (Figure 5) [49]. 8-Aminoquinoline-assisted C–H functionalization provided planar chiral ferrocenes with high yield and enantioselectivity. This reaction can be applied to a wide range

• of substrates, including arylacetylenes with electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups, and ferrocenyl amides with alkyl and acyl substituents on the other Cp ring. Additionally, the reaction showed similar reactivity and enantioselectivity on a 1 mmol scale. In 2020, Mei et al. reported the

• decreasing the oxidation potential. A range of functional groups, such as halides, ethers, and heterocycles, were tolerated well, yielding the corresponding enantioenriched products 14 with high enantioselectivity in the presence of chiral bisoxazoline ligand L2. A possible mechanism is depicted in Figure 5

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

• enantioselectivities. Compound 66d was incorporated into a thiourea organocatalyst framework and successfully tested in kinetic resolution with 73% enantioselectivity. The chiral phosphoric acid (CPA) (R)-C22 was used to catalyze the formation of a C–N chiral axis in the axially chiral product 68 from biarylamines 67

• enantioselectivity during the nucleophilic addition, and the subsequent aromatization completes central-to-axial chirality conversion delivering products 68. Dynamic kinetic resolution of naphthylindoles 69 was performed by reaction with bulky electrophiles such as azodicarboxylates 70 or o-hydroxybenzyl alcohols 72

• present on the amino group of the 1,3-benzenediamine, lower yields were reported, and substituting the amino group in position 3 for an N-methylamino or N,N-dimethylamino group led to a reduction in the enantioselectivity. Shao et al. developed the first organocatalyzed atroposelective Friedländer

Non-covalent organocatalyzed enantioselective cyclization reactions of α,β-unsaturated imines

• Sergio Torres-Oya and
• Mercedes Zurro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3221–3255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.268

• ]. Although quite important in all organocatalytic processes, there are specific organocatalysts which activate reactants through non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding. These interactions are crucial to obtain high enantioselectivity in the reaction. The 1-azadienes possess an electronegative

• acid as additive and a mixture of toluene and water provided the best results in terms of yield and enantioselectivity. A wide scope was explored, including electron-donating substituents and electron-withdrawing groups, as well as heterocycles, giving densely functionalized chiral azaspirocyclic

• further investigate the potential utility of this methodology, a gram scale experiment was conducted affording product 16f in a good yield and a slight decrease of the enantioselectivity. Additionally, a derivatization of product 16f by hydrogenation was carried out to yield the tricyclic piperidine 17

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

• from the styrenyl starting materials is stereoselective, giving the syn-diasteroisomer in high yields. A chiral iodoarene catalyst 16 was employed, along with a stoichiometric sacrificial oxidant, to give good to excellent levels of enantioselectivity. This elegant strategy led to a variety of β

• aminofluorination using BF3·Et2O with a chiral aryliodide 16 catalyst (Scheme 20) [44]. The study successfully obtained various chiral fluorinated oxazine products 38 with high enantioselectivity (up to >99% ee) and diastereoselectivity (up to >20:1 dr). Control experiments showed that using Py·9HF or Et3N·3HF as

• with KBr and NaOAc, a range of chiral 2,3,6-trisubstituted bromomethylmorpholines 73 were synthesised in excellent yields and diastereoselectivities that ranged from nothing to excellent depending on the substrate. The enantioselectivity of the reaction was not measured. The authors suggested a

Advances in the use of metal-free tetrapyrrolic macrocycles as catalysts

• Mandeep K. Chahal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3085–3112, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.257

• % yield with a 93:7 ratio of the anti:syn aldol product (63a:63b) and no enantioselectivity at pH 6.7, whereas at pH 3.6 the catalyst was completely inactive (Table 4). Although the supramolecular system composed of a porphyrin macrocycle and a secondary amine organocatalyst operated through the

Enantioselective regiospecific addition of propargyltrichlorosilane to aldehydes catalyzed by biisoquinoline N,N’-dioxide

• Noble Brako,
• Sreerag Moorkkannur Narayanan,
• Amber Burns,
• Layla Auter,
• Valentino Cesiliano,
• Rajeev Prabhakar and
• Norito Takenaka

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3069–3076, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.255

• systematic catalyst structure–reactivity and selectivity relationship study. The observed catalyst structure–enantioselectivity relationship of the present allenylation reaction was found exactly opposite to that of the analogous allylation reaction. The method provided eleven α-allenic alcohols in 22–99

• catalyst is (i.e., less degree of conformational freedom for a bound substrate), the better is the enantioselectivity for analogous chlorosilane-mediated reactionss [47][48][49][51][54]. Therefore, we gradually narrowed the chiral pocket of catalysts from 3 to 4, 5 [53], and 6 [56][57]. To our surprise

• , the enantioselectivity consistently decreased as the chiral pocket became narrower while the reactivity remained the same. As such, we reduced the size of the substituents that craft the chiral pocket (7) and found that unsubstituted catalyst 8 was the most enantioselective. This observed catalyst

Copper-catalyzed yne-allylic substitutions: concept and recent developments

• Shuang Yang and
• Xinqiang Fang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2739–2775, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.232

• nucleophiles (Scheme 1b). However, to achieve a highly selective yne-allylic substitution, a range of challenges must be addressed. First, how to achieve the regioselectivity under the coexistence of alkenyl and alkynyl units; second, how to realize the enantioselectivity control that is remote from the

• carried out without the presence of terminal alkyne, although no ee value was obtained. Therefore, they speculated that the direct substitution at the benzyl position is the key to causing the side reaction that affected the enantioselectivity. Recently, Zhu and Xu et al. [74] achieved the η-nucleophilic

• to be the determining step for the enantioselectivity, while the diastereoselectivity is mainly induced by the chiral alkylated naphthol intermediate in the second annulation step (Scheme 46). Xu et al. [80] realized asymmetric [4 + 1] cyclization of yne-allylic esters with pyrazolones. This

5th International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis (ISySyCat2023)

• Anthony J. Burke and
• Elisabete P. Carreiro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2704–2707, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.227

• novel lipophilic cinchona squaramide organocatalyst. This organocatalyst was evaluated in a benchmark Michael addition of acetylacetone to trans-β-nitrostyrene, yielding the Michael adduct with high yield and enantioselectivity. The hydrophobic chain of the catalyst allowed the organocatalyst to be

• easily recovered by precipitation using polar solvents. This catalyst proved to be excellent for the preparation of (S)-baclofen on a gram scale, furnishing the main chiral intermediate in high yield and enantioselectivity. Furthermore, the catalyst was recycled over five cycles while maintaining its

• terazosin and prazosin were successfully synthesized. Oliveira Jr. et al. developed a new methodology for the asymmetric synthesis of β-aryl-γ-lactam derivatives with very good yield and enantioselectivity [16]. This was achieved through a palladium-catalyzed Heck–Matsuda desymmetrization of N-protected 2,5

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

• now yield the same product, it is necessary to recalculate the %ee, but this time using an effective rate constant keff (Equation 3). In doing so, a small increase in enantioselectivity is observed, with now a (R) enantiomeric excess of 96%ee. The designed catalyst enables the generation of an almost