Practical enantioselective synthesis of beta-substituted-beta-amino esters.

[reaction: see text] A practical, large-scale synthesis of a beta-amino ester 1 was developed. A chiral imine derived from (S)-phenylglycinol and 3-trimethylsilylpropanal was coupled with the Reformatsky reagent 3 with high diastereoselectivity (de > 98%) to give (SS)-4a as the major isomer. The amino alcohol residue of the coupling product 4 was oxidatively cleaved with sodium periodate in the presence of methylamine.

N-Amination of pyrrole and indole heterocycles with monochloramine (NH2Cl).

A survey of several electrophilic ammonia reagents for the N-amination of indole- and pyrrole-containing heterocycles revealed that monochloramine (NH(2)Cl) is an excellent reagent for this transformation. Pyrroles and indoles containing a variety of substitution were aminated on nitrogen with isolated yields ranging from 45% to 97%.