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A transition-metal-free and room-temperature coupling/decarboxylation reaction between α-oxocarboxylates and α-bromoketones is reported herein. It represents the first mild and regioselective synthesis of either 1,2- or 1,3-diketones from the same starting materials. Notably, the regioselectivity is simply controlled by solvents. The preliminary experimental data and DFT calculations suggest sequential Darzens-type coupling, alkaline hydrolysis, KOH-promoted oxirane opening and decarboxylation in one pot. This method is efficient for the synthesis of α,β-epoxy-γ-butyrolactone and curcuminoids.

A cascade double C-H annulation of aldoximes with alkynes to produce benz[a]acridizinium salts is developed by using a simple catalytic system of [Cp*Rh(OAc) 2 ] 2 in the presence of Zn(OTf) 2 with oxygen as the sole oxidant. In addition, the challenging C-H annulation of aldoximes with alkynes, especially arylalkynes, to synthesize 1H-isoquinolines is also achieved under slightly modified conditions. This protocol provides an efficient one-pot access to multisubstituted dehydroberberinium skeletons from simple starting materials, which can be easily transformed into berberinium and tetrahydroberberine skeletons by controlled hydrogenation.