What’s killing the horses?

Mary Fletcher and co-workers from the University of Queensland have reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry on the isolation of cromedine from a plant, crotalaria medicaginea, that has been thought to be the reason for horse deaths in Australia.

JAFC paper

C-H bond activation cascade

Keith Fagnou and co-workers from the University of Ottawa have reported in Chemical Science on a palladium catalyzed C-H bond activation cascade process.

Chemical Science paper

NHC catalysis

David Lupton and co-worker from Monash University have reported in Chemical Science on a carbene catalyzed cyclopropane-rearranging/C-C bond forming cascade.

Chemical Science paper

Racemization with DFT

Filip Teply and co-workers have published in Chemical Science on the use of DFT ((TURBOMOLE, B3LYP) to observe the racemization pathway of a molecule.

Chemical Science paper

Transannular Claisen rearrangement

Donald Craig and co-workers at Imperial College have reported in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry on a transannular Claisen rearrangement converting a lactone into a cyclobutane.

OBC paper

Regioselective epoxide opening

Pilar López-Ram-de-Víu and co-workers have reported in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry on an epoxide opening reaction using a Grignard reagent – and the regioselectivity is switched when they use it in the presence of copper bromide.

OBC paper

Olefin oxidation with iodosyl benzene

Jose Barluenga and co-workers from the Universidad de Oviedo have reported in JACS on an iodosyl benzene mediated oxidation of an olefin to afford beta-diazocarbonyl compounds.

JACS paper

Intermolecular [4+2] approach for pyridines

Sensuke Ogoshi and co-workers from Osaka University have reported in JACS on a nickel-catalyzed [4+2] approach to access pyridines.

JACS paper

Alpha-chloro group slows enamine formation

Keiji Maruoka and co-workers at Kyoto University have reported in JACS on a cross-Aldol coupling between two distinct aldehydes, one with an alpha-chloro group.  It turns out that the chloride group slows down the enamine formation.

JACS paper

Complestatin A an B syntheses

Dale Boger and colleague have reported in JACS on their synthesis of  complestatin A and B.

JACS paper