Diazonamide Synthesis

Tarek Sammakia and co-workers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have recently published in ACIEE on a formal synthesis of diazonamide.  The key cyclization process involved an SnAr reaction, which displaces a bromide on the oxazole group.

ACIEE paper

Synthesis of Echinopines A and B

David Chen and co-workers at Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences in Singapore have recently published in JACS on the synthesis of echinopines where the key reactions involved the use of an alpha-diazo carbonyl intermediate to afford a cyclopropane ring and an SmI2-mediated intramolecular pinacol coupling between an aldehyde and ketone to form a seven membered ring.

JACS paper

Bafilomycins

Raymond Andersen’s group at the University of British Columbia have recently published on the isolation of a thiomorpholine containing bafilomycin.

JNP paper

Access to beta-Unsubstituted Enones

Brian Connell and co-workers at Texas A&M have recently published in Chemical Communications on a methylenation process that leads to alpha,beta-unsaturated enones, enals, from ketones and aldehydes.

Chemical Communications paper

Palladium Catalyzed Multi Component Reaction

Bartolo Gabriele and co-workers at Università della Calabria in Italy have recently published in Tetrahedron Letters on a palladium catalyzed four component process that leads to substituted furans.

TL paper

Three Component Coupling for Substituted Pyridines

Ken Tanaka and co-workers at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have recently published in Organic Letters on a method to make substituted pyridines from two aryl ethynyl ethers and an isocyanate using a rhodium catalyst.

OL paper

Platinum Cascade Cyclization

Chang Ho Oh and Hanyang University have recently published in Organic Letters  on a platinum catalyzed cyclization process of an enynylbenzaldehyde.

OL paper

Multicomponent Coupling with Palladium

Norio Sakai and co-workers at the Tokyo University of Science have recently published in Organic Letters on a multi-component reaction that involves the coupling between two alkynes and an aryl halide using a palladium catalyst.

OL paper

Vindoline

Dale Boger and co-workers have published in JACS on a nice synthesis of vindoline that looks like his previous synthesis of fendleridine.  However, it’s worth looking at considering the generality of this awesome reaction.

JACS paper

C-H Activation with Magnesium

We always hear about transition metal catalyzed C-H insertions.  Well here’s a C-H activation mechanistic study with magnesium from the labs of Detlef Schröder and co-workers at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Chemistry a European Journal paper