Search

Capitalizing on an oxidation–alkylation approach, a non-diastereoselective entry into 2′-methyl taxanes was developed. The issue of configurational assignment at the newly formed side-chain quaternary stereocenter was solved and put into a more general context by integrating information from an alternative diastereoselective synthesis of model compounds and from spectroscopic measurements, critically comparing the J -Based and the Universal NMR Database approaches.

Benzo[ c ]phenanthridine alkaloid, 7-hydroxynitidine, was synthesized from readily available 2-benzyloxy-6-bromo-3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde 5 and napthylamine 6 using reductive amination followed by radical cyclization in eight steps. This method is highly efficient and better way to synthesize fully aromatized benzo[ c ]phenanthridine compounds.

The conversion of meso -2,3-butanediol ( 1 ) into 2-butanol ( 3 ) by Lactobacillus brevis, via diol dehydratase-catalyzed reaction to 2-butanone ( 2 ), was shown to occur with complete discrimination between the two enantiomorphic-enantiotopic 1-hydroxyethyl groups of 1 .