Multi-component approach to guajadial B

Looking at this molecule, one would never think that you can mix three things, a penta-substituted benzene ring, benzaldehyde and humulene, and obtain the final compound, guajadial! Ji-Kai Liu and co-workers at the Kunming Institute of Botany did such a thing!

OL paper

Angelone synthesis

Zhigang Weng and co-workers from Shenzhen University have reported in Tetrahedron on a synthesis of angelone.  The highlight is the cascade reaction forming the final product.

Tetrahedron paper

Olefin aminohydroxylation

Istvan Marko and co-workers at Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium have reported in Tetrahedron on a nice synthesis of Telaprevir using an oxaziridine and a lithium amide to functionalize an alkene.

Tetrahedron paper

Allyl alcohol transformation

Jianliang Xiao and co-workers at the University of Liverpool have reported in Organic Letters on a one pot transformation of an allyl alcohol substrate to access dihydrochalcones.

OL paper

Cytimidine synthesis

Ryan Looper and colleague at the University of Utah have reported in Organic Letters on their synthesis of cytimidine using a one pot three component approach of two amides and an aryl bromide.

OL paper

Monitoring of a reaction using ABTS

David Berkowitz and co-workers at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln have reported in ACIEE on a metal promoted cyclization reaction that involves the addition of a halide anion onto an alkyne and decarboxylation of a carbonate.  2,2-Azino-bis(3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonate) (ABTS) was used as a peroxidase cofactor, which allowed the authors to monitor the formation of hydrogen peroxide by UV detection during the reaction.  The alcohol byproduct in the reaction would be oxidized in the presence of oxygen by an alcohol oxidase.

ACIEE paper

Silver with hypervalent iodide

Renhua Fan and co-worker at Fudan University have reported in Chem Comm on a cascade reaction that involves C-H activation and hydroalkoxylation using a silver triflate catalyst and PhI(OAc)2 as the stoichiometric oxidant.

Chem Comm paper

Development of one pot reactions: Aldol then Cross Coupling

Qiao-Shen Hu and co-workers at CUNY have reported in Organic Letters on a one pot transformation that involves an Aldol condensation followed by a rhodium catalyzed coupling of the beta-hydroxy ketone with an arylboronic acid.

OL paper

Organocatalytic Cascade

Jinxing Ye and co-workers at East China University of Science and Technology have published on a one pot organocatalytic reaction to form oxazines.  I guess one pot reactions are all the craze now:

OBC paper

It’s all in one pot!

Yen-Ho Chu and co-workers at the National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan have published in Organic Letters on a synthesis of luotonin.  This compound has in vitro activity against  murine leukemia P-388 cell line with an IC50 value of 6.3 micromolar.

OL paper