The indan skeleton is present in a variety of molecules with important biological activity, including the wellknown Indinavir and Aricept. Our research group has investigated approaches to obtain indans from 1,2dihydronaphthalenes, using a thallium(III)-promoted ring contraction reaction. During these studies, we found that a side chain at the double bond has a strong influence in the reaction ...

palladium (ii) coordination complexes catalyze the reaction of alcohols with ketones to yield ethers. during the catalytic cycle, the alcohol adds selectively to the β-carbon (anti-markovnikov). in this work, mechanism and kinetics for the reaction of methanol with methyl vinyl ketone (mvk), being catalyzed by pd, has been theoretically investigated in detail. using quantum mechanical approach,...

Trichloroacetic Acid (TCA) was used as an efficient catalyst for the synthesis of highly functionalized piperidines via a one-pot five-component reaction of aromatic amines, aromatic aldehydes and β-keto esters in MeOH at room temperature. The remarkable advantages offered by this method are good yields, simple procedure, short reaction times, no need to column chromatography and an easy wo...

Nucleophilic additions of lithium keto and ester enolates and mono- and bifunctional Grignard reagents to artemisitene provided C-16-derived artemisinin monomers, dimers, trimers, and tetramers whose antimalarial and cytotoxic activities have been evaluated.

Silica-bonded n-propyldiethylenetriamine sulfamic acid (SBPDSA) was found as an efficient solid acid for the synthesis of coumarins. Coumarin derivatives were obtained via the Pechmann condensation reaction of phenols and β-keto-esters at 80 oC under solvent-free conditions. Also, biscoumarins were obtained via the condensation of aldehydes and 4-hydroxycoumarin in water at reflux conditions. T...

A dynamic kinetic resolution of β-halo α-keto esters in an asymmetric homoenolate reaction is described. A chiral N-hetereocyclic carbene catalyzes the a(3) → d(3)-umpolung addition of α,β-enals to racemic α-keto esters, forming γ-butyrolactones with three contiguous stereocenters. The addition occurs with high regio-, diastereo-, and enantiocontrol. This methodology constitutes an intermolecul...

A sterically demanding unsymmetrical pentafluorophenyl-triisopropylphenyl-λ(3)-iodane was developed as an effective reagent for the electrophilic pentafluorophenylation of various β-keto esters and a β-keto amide. 17 examples of α-pentafluorophenylated 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds 3 having a quaternary carbon center are provided. The resulting compounds were nicely transformed into chiral α-pentafl...

Lipstatin, isolated from Streptomyces toxytricini as a potent and selective inhibitor of human pancreatic lipase, is a precursor for tetrahydrolipstatin (also known as orlistat, Xenical, and Alli), the only FDA-approved antiobesity medication for long-term use. Lipstatin features a 2-hexyl-3,5-dihydroxy-7,10-hexadecadienoic-β-lactone structure with an N-formyl-l-leucine group attached as an est...