ChemInform Abstract: Organic Chemistry Reactivity Tamed One Bond at a Time

A catalyst that couples together three reactants to form just one compound out of several possibilities, as a single mirror-image isomer, should simplify the synthesis of biologically relevant molecules. See Article p.367 This paper reports a catalytic process that combines two simple unsaturated organic molecules — a highly selective copper–diboron reagent and a monosubstituted allene — to produce a boron-substituted organocopper intermediate that then participates in a chemoselective, site-selective and enantioselective allylic substitution. The authors use this approach in the enantioselective synthesis of gram quantities of two natural products: the anti-tumour agent herboxidiene and stereoisomerically pure rottnestol, a hemiketal originally isolated from a marine sponge. Further development of this procedure should lead to economical protocols for the synthesis of other difficult-to-access alkenylboron-containing organocopper compounds.