Nature-inspired cascade catalysis: reaction control through substrate concentration--double vs. quadruple domino reactions.

The design of biologically inspired, multi-component cascade reactions enables the targeted synthesis of assorted structurally complex products. Similar to regulation in cells the reaction path is controlled by the substrate concentration and complex enantiopure products with high structural diversity are provided.

A convenient method to remove ruthenium byproducts from olefin metathesis reactions using polymer-bound triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO).

Ruthenium byproducts from ring-closing metathesis reactions can be removed by refluxing the crude reaction mixture with resin-bound triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO) in toluene or by stirring with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and silica gel at room temperature. Residual levels of ruthenium can be achieved that are as low as 0.04 microg per 5 mg of product when a combination of TPPO, DMSO, and silica gel is used.

Formal total syntheses of the (-)-salicylihalamides A and B from D-glucose and L-rhamnose.

[reaction: see text] Two formal total syntheses of the (-)-salicylihalamides, based on chiral pool approaches, are reported. D-glucose and L-rhamnose were used to prepare advanced intermediates 23 and 54, which can be converted in three or four steps, respectively, to the target compounds. The synthesis of 23 from a known D-glucose-derivative was accomplished in 12 steps and 17% overall yield, and the synthesis of 54 from a known L-rhamnose-derivative was done in nine steps and 6% overall yield.