We report a concise synthesis of A-factor, the prototypical γ-butyrolactone signalling compound of Streptomyces bacteria. In analogy to enzymatic reactions in A-factor biosynthesis, our synthesis features a tandem esterification-Knoevenagel condensation yielding a 2-acyl butenolide and a surprising, chemoselective conjugate reduction of this α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compound using sodium cyanob...

A concise and efficient approach to the synthesis of structurally diverse 6,8a-dihydropyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives has been accomplished by a three-component reaction involving sulfonyl acetonitrile, an aromatic aldehyde, and 6-aminouracil. The method involves the domino Knoevenagel condensation/Michael addition/cyclization cascade in the presence of triethylamine in refluxing ethanol.

The domino Knoevenagel-hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of the aldehyde rac-8, Meldrum’s acid 2 and enol ether 3 leads to the cycloadduct rac-17 as the main product which in a second domino process was transformed into the benzoisoquinolizidine rac-18 by solvolysis, hydrogenolysis, condensation and hydrogenation; rac-18 was used as a substrate for the synthesis of the two diastereomeric epiemetine a...

Covalent organic framework (COF) is an outstanding manifesto for heterogeneous photocatalysis. Herein, we synthesized a pyrene-based two-dimensional C=C linked π-conjugated COF via Knoevenagel condensation and anchored Ni(II)-center through bipyridine moieties....