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A new approach for the divergent total syntheses of (±)-vincaminorine, (±)-N-methylquebrachamine, (±)-quebrachamine, (±)-minovine and (±)-vincadifformine, each in less than 10 linear steps starting from a single δ-lactam building block, is reported. Key to our route design is the late-stage generation of reactive enamine functionality from stable indole-linked δ-lactams via a highly chemoselective iridium(I)-catalyzed reduction. The efficiently formed secodine intermediates subsequently undergo either a formal Diels-Alder cycloaddition or a competitive Michael addition/reduction to access aspidosperma-type alkaloids in excellent diastereoselectivities. Product selectivity could be controlled by changing the indole N-protecting group in the reductive cyclization precursors. An asymmetric variant of this synthetic strategy for the synthesis of (+)-20-epi-ibophyllidine is also described., (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

An efficient catalytic and stereoselective method for the direct construction of protected ethylene-amino and propylene-amino scaffolds attached to quaternary stereocentres is reported. Preliminary investigations revealed a mild base catalysed nucleophilic ring opening of N-sulfonyl aziridines using the commercially available phosphazene base 2-tert-butylimino-2-diethylamino-1,3-dimethyl-perhydro-1,3,2-diazaphosphorine (BEMP) was possible and resulted in highly efficient alkylation reactions with a range of methine carbon acids. This reaction could be rendered highly asymmetric (up to 97% ee) by employing phase-transfer catalysis to control stereoinduction. Incorporation of alkyl substituents onto the aziridine electrophile, resulted in a highly diastereoselective (up to 30:1 d.r.) variant of this methodology. A further extension using N-protected cyclic sulfamidates as the electrophilic component was successful with a range of pro-nucleophiles (up to 96% ee and 45:1 d.r.) and allowed a range of nitrogen protecting groups (carbamate, sulfonyl, phosphonyl, benzyl) to be incorporated into the alkylation adducts. Finally, the utility of the products have been demonstrated in the synthesis of useful heterocycles and compounds bearing structural components of natural products., (Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

A pyrrolidine and Pd catalyzed diastereoselective carbocyclization of aldehyde and ketone-linked allenes has been developed. The cooperative organo/metal-catalyzed cyclization reaction, which presumably proceeds via an enamine intermediate, is efficient and broad in scope. Also, it has been extended to a catalytic asymmetric variant using diarylprolinol-based organocatalysts to afford substituted cyclopentane and pyrrolidine reaction products in up to 82% ee.

A one-pot, multistep reaction cascade to cyclopentenes from alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones and propargylated carbon acids through a combination of organocatalysis and transition metal ion catalysis is reported; the reaction cascade is simple to perform, occurs under mild conditions and is broad in scope.

An enantioselective Brønsted acid catalyzed Mannich reaction between acetophenone derived enamines and N-Boc imines has been developed. Simple diol (S)-H(8)-BINOL has been identified as the optimal catalyst, to afford versatile beta-amino aryl ketones in good yield and enantiomeric excess.