Phosphane Sulfide/Octacarbonyldicobalt-Catalyzed Pauson - Khand Reaction Under an Atmospheric Pressure of Carbon Monoxide.

Convenient access to cyclopentenones is provided by catalytic intra- and intermolecular Pauson - Khand reactions in the presence of octacarbonyldicobalt and tributylphosphane sulfide (see scheme). In contrast to other reactions of this type, they proceed under mild conditions (70 degrees C, 1 atm CO), and commercially available [Co(2)(CO)(8)] can be used without further purification.

Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Epothilone A Using Multifunctional Asymmetric Catalyses.

A catalytic version has now been developed for the enantioselective total synthesis of epothilone A (1). The key is the use of multifunctional asymmetric catalyses for a direct aldol reaction and cyanosilylation. This successful approach demonstrated the usefulness of these reactions for the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of complex molecules.