Short and highly stereoselective total syntheses of the sesquilignan natural product tatanan A and its C3 epimer are described. An assembly-line synthesis approach, using iterative lithiation-borylation reactions, was applied to install the three contiguous stereocenters with high enantio- and diastereoselectivity. One of the stereocenters was installed using a configurationally labile lithiate...

The lithiation of 2-(2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl)ethyl diisopropylcarbamate (1) is achieved freely by sec-butyllithium in diethylether with high lk-diastereoselectivity: the bicyclic chelate complexes 3a and 3b are reacted with electrophiles to form optically active precursors 4a and 4b with >95% diastereoselectivity. In addition, tertiary diamines can undergo an external complexation in con...

A general three-component triple cascade reaction through an iminium-enamine-iminium sequential activation initiated by a hetero-Michael addition to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes affords [3.2.0]heterobicycles in high diastereoselectivity. The rate and diastereoselectivity of the reaction depended on the (E)-4-heterocrotonate and size of the secondary amine. The enantiomers of the major diastereoiso...

Nutrient uptake by a primitive cell would have been limited by the permeability characteristics of its membrane. We measured the permeabilities of model protocellular membranes to water, five of the six pentoses, and selected aldohexoses, ketohexoses, and three to six carbon alditols by following volume changes of vesicles after the addition of solute to the external medium. Solute hydrophobici...

A range of 1,2,4-trisubstituted cyclohexadienes obtained from the Birch reaction were hydrogenated asymmetrically to produce synthetically valuable chiral compounds in high enantio- and diastereoselectivity.

The diastereoselective insertion into carboxylic O H bonds was investigated with camphorsultam as a chiral auxiliary, and moderate to good selectivity was achieved. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Along with the well established intramolecular C H insertion reactions by Rh(II)-mediated carbenoids, there has been considerable attention directed to the corresponding insertion in...

Enantiomerically pure 2-substituted-2,5-dihydro-3-(aryl) sulfonyl/sulfinyl furans have been prepared from the easily accessible carbohydrate derivatives. The orientation of the substituents attached at the C-2 position of furans is sufficient to control the diastereoselectivity of the addition of various nucleophiles to the vinyl sulfone/sulfoxide-modified tetrahydrofurans, irrespective of the ...

Positional isomers of naturally occurring peptide subunits were synthesized via highly diastereoselective reduction of tert-butylsulfinyl ketimines as a key reaction. While NaBH4 reduction of ketimines derived from 2-thiazolyl ketones afforded the (RS,R)-isomer with moderate diastereoselectivity, L-Selectride® reduction afforded the (RS,S)-isomer as the sole product. In contrast, ketimines deri...