The enantioselective synthesis of a dimeric pyranonaphthoquinone closely related to the cardinalins is described. Whilst attempts to effect a double Hauser-Kraus annulation of enone 5 were unsuccessful using both bis-phthalide 4 and bis-sulfone 21, a single annulation of cyanophthalide 28 with enone 5 furnished functionalised naphthalene 31. Suzuki-Miyaura homocoupling of the aryl triflate 29 d...

Arylidene-Δ2-pyrrolin-4-ones undergo organocatalyzed annulation with malononitrile, furnishing dihydropyrano[3,2-b]pyrroles (18 examples, 0–77% ee in dichloromethane, 11–44% methanol). The products could be enantiomerically enriched by trituration (11 95–99% ee). Enantioselectivity was dependent on the nature of substrate and conformation catalyst, which turn solvent-controlled. reaction mechan...

Stereoselective synthesis of a cyclopentane nucleus by convergent annulation constitutes a significant challenge for synthetic chemists. Although a number of biologically relevant cyclopentane natural products are known, more often than not, the cyclopentane core is assembled in a stepwise manner because of the lack of efficient annulation strategies. Here we report the rhodium-catalysed reacti...

Platinum(II) catalyzes the isomerization of camphor sulfonamide diynes in a cascade reaction involving annulation of a five-membered ring to the camphor skeleton, ring-enlargement by C-C bond cleavage, reduction of sulfur(VI) to sulfur(IV), and oxidation of a hydroxy group to a ketone. The reactions of the diynes with other transition metal compounds were also studied. Copper, gold and rhenium ...

Nucleoside analogues are widely employed as bioactive compounds against cancer and viral infections. Consequently, it is important to develop efficient synthetic methods to access them with high efficiency and structural diversity. Herein, we present a full account of our work on the synthesis of nucleoside analogues via annulations of donor acceptor aminocyclopropanes and aminocyclobutanes. Th...

Isoquinolones (isoquinolin-1(2H)-ones) are one of the important nitrogen-heterocyclic compounds having versatile biological and physiological activities, their synthetic methods have been recently developed greatly. This short review illustrates significant advances in construction isoquinolone ring with atom- step-economy, focusing on intermolecular annulation protocols intramolecular cyclizat...

A series of chiral triazolium salts have been synthesized from methyl l-phenylalaninate hydrochloride. The NHCs derived from this class of novel triazolium salts were found to be highly efficient catalysts in the annulation reaction of enals and 2-naphthols. These reactions proceeded with high chemoselectivity and wide substrate scope affording enantioenriched β-arylsplitomicins in good yields ...

The first enantioselective [3 + 2] annulation of α-substituted allenoates with β,γ-unsaturated N-sulfonylimines is described. In the presence of a dipeptide phosphine catalyst, a wide range of highly functionalized cyclopentenes bearing an all-carbon quaternary center were obtained in moderate to good yields and with good to excellent enantioselectivities.

The development of an organocatalytic one-pot cascade for the annulation of simple starting materials: α,β-unsaturated aldehydes, hydrogen peroxide, β-carbonyl compounds and NBS to furnish optically active 3-pyrones in good yield and with excellent enantioselectivity is presented. Further diversification of the obtained products is demonstrated by selective reductive transformations.

Phosphine-catalyzed [2 + 4] annulation of allenoates with thiazolone-derived alkenes has been achieved under mild conditions, giving biologically important 6,7-dihydro-5H-pyrano[2,3-d]thiazole derivatives in high to excellent yields. With the use of Kwon's phosphine as the chiral catalyst, optically active products were obtained in good yields with excellent enantioselectivities.