Tethered Biginelli condensation of enantioenriched hexahydropyrrolopyrimidines 8 with beta-ketoesters provides efficient asymmetric access to tricyclic guanidines 9 having a syn relationship of the angular C2a and C8a hydrogens. This reaction was employed to realize the first practical enantioselective access to this fragment of batzelladine alkaloids B (2) and E (5). The efficiency of this str...

Heat and shock sensitive tosyl azide was generated and used on demand in a telescoped diazo transfer process. Small quantities of tosyl azide were accessed in a 'one pot' batch procedure using shelf stable, readily available reagents. For large scale diazo transfer reactions tosyl azide was generated and used in a telescoped flow process, to mitigate the risks associated with handling potential...

A series of cyclic analogues of bioactive thiosemicarbazide derivatives have been synthesized as potential antimycobacterial agents. The 4-amino-1,2,4-triazole-5-thione analogues (Ia-f) were prepared by heating a mixture of thiocarbohydrzide and appropriate carboxylic acids. Reaction of thiocarbohydrazide with γ-ketoesters in the presence of sodium methoxide furnished triazolopyridazine derivat...

Phenylacetaldehyde reductase (PAR) produced by styrene-assimilating Corynebacterium strain ST-10 was used to synthesize chiral alcohols. This enzyme with a broad substrate range reduced various prochiral aromatic ketones and beta-ketoesters to yield optically active secondary alcohols with an enantiomeric purity of more than 98% enantiomeric excess (e.e.). The Escherichia coli recombinant cells...

α-Quaternary ketones are accessed through novel enantioselective alkylations of allyl and propargyl electrophiles by unstabilized prochiral enolate nucleophiles in the presence of palladium complexes with various phosphinooxazoline (PHOX) ligands. Excellent yields and high enantiomeric excesses are obtained from three classes of enolate precursors: enol carbonates, enol silanes, and racemic β-k...

The mechanism by which chiral arylpyrrole-substituted guanidinium ions promote the Claisen rearrangement of O-allyl α-ketoesters and induce enantioselectivity was investigated by experimental and computational methods. In addition to stabilization of the developing negative charge on the oxallyl fragment of the rearrangement transition state by hydrogen-bond donation, evidence was obtained for ...

General catalytic asymmetric routes toward cyclopentanoid and cycloheptanoid core structures embedded in numerous natural products have been developed. The central stereoselective transformation in our divergent strategies is the enantioselective decarboxylative alkylation of seven-membered β-ketoesters to form α-quaternary vinylogous esters. Recognition of the unusual reactivity of β-hydroxyke...