Fe-Catalyzed C-H Activation

Christina White’s group at UIUC has been putting forth many efforts towards the area of C-H activation.  Her group’s Science paper just came out on the selectivity issues of iron catalyzed methylene oxidation.  It’s an interesting problem – you have a molecule with multiple -CH2- sites but for some reason the catalyst system selectively always chooses one over the rest.

Science paper

Ligulactones A and B

Some spirosesquiterpenes were isolated by Yan-Ping Shi and co-workers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

JNP paper

Melotenine A

Melotenine A was isolated by Xiao-Dong Luo and co-workers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences from the plant, Melodinus tenuicaudatus. The pentacyclic alkaloid was found to have 0.9 micromolar IC50 against HL-60 cell lines.

OL paper

Cycloisomerization with Gold

There have been many advances using gold as a catalyst to make all sorts of cyclic compounds from linear precursors.  Louis Fensterbank and co-workers at CNRS have recetnly published in Chemical Communications on a gold catalyzed cycloisomerization that gives rise to allenyl tetrahydrofuranyl structures.

Chem Comm paper

Ethoxycyclobutanones and Alkenes

Jun-ichi Matsuo and co-workers at Kanazawa University have recently published on an intramolecular [4+2] cycloaddition to make polycyclic frameworks.

Chem Comm paper

Arisandilactone A

Arisandilactone A, a new triterpenoid, was reported by Ya-Ching Shen and co-workers at National Taiwan University in Organic Letters.

OL paper

Cascade Spirocycle

Seunghoon Shin at Hanyang University have recently published in ACIEE on a gold catalyzed Pinacol-Mannich-Michael reaction to access spirocyclic centers.

ACIEE paper

Ugi Reaction for Isocoumarins

Stefano Marcaccini and co-workers at the Universita di Firenze have recently published on an Ugi reaction that gives rise to isocoumarins.

OL paper

Three Component Coupling with Alpha-diazo Carbonyl

Wenhao Hu and co-workers from East China Normal University have recently published on a three component coupling that involves an alpha-diazo compound, alkynyl imino aryl ring and an alcohol in the presence of a dirhodium catalyst and silver triflate.

OL paper

Cyanoamidation with Palladium

Christopher Douglas and co-workers at the University of Minnesota have recently published in Organic Letters on a cyanoamidation reaction using a palladium catalyst.

OL paper

****Update****  May 20 2011:

Apparently this paper was withdrawn because the ees were not reproducible.