Traditionally, C-H oxidation reactions install oxidized functionality onto a preformed molecular skeleton, resulting in a local molecular change. The use of C-H activation chemistry to construct complex molecular scaffolds is a new area with tremendous potential in synthesis. We report a Pd(II)/bis-sulfoxide-catalyzed dehydrogenative Diels-Alder reaction that converts simple terminal olefins in...

Diels-Alder reactions of 2(1H)-quinolones having an electron-withdrawing group at the 4-position with 1,3-butadiene derivatives were carried out to give the phenanthridones richly functionalized under the conditions of atmospheric and high pressure. Furthermore, the reactivities of 4-substituted 2(1H)-quinolones acting as a dienophile were examined using MO calculation.

Catalysis by nucleic acids was merely a theoretical possibility until the discovery of catalytic RNAs (ribozymes) in the early 1980s.1 Although a variety of natural ribozymes have since been identified,2 analogous catalytic DNAs (deoxyribozymes) have not been found in nature. In the laboratory, many artificial ribozymes and deoxyribozymes have been identified through in vitro selection by start...

For the first time, we evidence experimentally that furfural derivatives can react as dienes in Diels–Alder cycloadditions.

A concise total synthesis of the antiproliferative macrolide (+)-neopeltolide has been completed, utilising a Jacobsen hetero Diels-Alder reaction to install the trisubstituted tetrahydropyran ring.