Acid-Catalyzed Highly Enantioselective Synthesis of α-Amino Acid Derivatives from Sulfinamides and Alkynes.

An enantioselective difunctionalization of activated alkynes using chiral sulfinamide reagents is developed. It is an atom and chirality transfer process that allows for the modular synthesis of optically active α-amino acid derivatives under mild conditions. The reaction proceeds through an acid-catalyzed [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement mechanism with predictable stereochemistry and a broad scope.

Palladium-Catalyzed Defluorinative Coupling of Difluoroalkenes and Aryl Boronic Acids for Ketone Synthesis.

The transition-metal-catalyzed carbonylation reaction is a useful approach for ketone synthesis. However, it is often problematic to use exogenous carbonyl reagents, such as gaseous carbon monoxide. In this manuscript, we report a novel palladium-catalyzed coupling reaction of gem-difluoroalkenes and aryl boronic acids that yields bioactive indane-type ketones with an all-carbon α-quaternary center.

Application of natural deep eutectic solvents to extract ferulic acid from Hort with microwave assistance.

In this study, a method using natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) combined with microwave-assistance extraction (MAE) was researched for the first time to establish an environmentally-friendly method for extracting ferulic acid from Hort. 20 kinds of NADES were initially screened, then response surface methodology was performed to optimize the NADES-MAE extraction of ferulic acid in on the basis of the results of single-factor experiments. The results demonstrated that NADES could provide better extraction yields of ferulic acid than conventional solvents, and the combination of choline chloride and 1,2-propanediol was the most effective.