Search

The intramolecular hydroamination of a guanidine on an eneyne unit affords a guanidine-substituted diene capable of reacting with dienophiles. These substrates undergo [4+2]-cycloaddition reactions to generate a series of complex cyclic- and spirocyclic-guanidines. Select substrates can further undergo a ring opening-elimination cascade that ultimately reveals a vinyl-2-aminoimidazole. As such this cascade reaction may find application in the synthesis of oroidin-type natural products and their analogues.

Cationic Rh(II) complexes are able to catalyze the regioselective hydroamination of propargyl ureas in a 6-endo fashion. This transformation permits access to interesting substitution patterns of dihydropyrimidines, which have found use as nucleotide exchange factor inhibitors.

An intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition has efficiently constructed the A-ring portions of the cylindrospermopsin alkaloids. A nitro-aldol addition of an elaborated nitroalkane to a pyrimidine aldehyde followed by an intramolecular reductive guanidinylation has enabled the syntheses of all three alkaloids in this family in 18–19 steps. We report the first asymmetric synthesis of cylindrospermopsin, unambiguously assigning its absolute configuration.