A new method for generation of non-stabilized α-amino-substituted carbanions by the reaction of magnesium carbenoids with N-lithio arylamines: their reactivity and a new synthesis of α-amino acid derivatives

Reductive N-alkylation of nitroarenes: a green approach for the N-alkylation of natural products

A simple, mild, cost-effective, and green approach for the reductive mono-N-alkylation of nitroarenes has been developed. HOAc/Zn are utilized as the reducing system together with a carbonyl compound as an alkyl source in methanol. Excellent yields were obtained with stoichiometric control of mono- over dialkylated products. Application to five complex natural products demonstrated the practical utility of the method.

[Exploitation of the chemistry of magnesium carbenoids and their use in organic synthesis]

Synthetic organic chemistry is a base of medicinal chemistry and the exploitation of new methods for carbon-carbon bond formation is of most importance in synthetic organic chemistry. Carbenes and carbenoids have long been known to be highly reactive carbon species that show a variety of unique reactivity. However, those reactive species are not fully used in organic synthesis. The reasons are as follows: one is the precursors for the generation of carbenes and carbenoids are quite limited and the other is that the reactivity of the species is too high to control. In order to solve the problem mentioned above, we used alpha-haloalkyl (or alkenyl) aryl sulfoxides as the precursors and used sulfoxide-magnesium exchange reaction for generation of much mild magnesium carbenoids. alpha-Haloalkyl (or alkenyl) aryl sulfoxides are quite easily synthesized in high overall yields. Magnesium carbenoids, cyclopropylmagnesium carbenoids, cyclobutylmagnesium carbenoids, magnesium beta-oxido carbenoids, and magnesium alkylidene carbenoids are generated at low temperature from the corresponding sulfoxides with a Grignard reagent in quantitative yields. They were found to be stable usually at below -60 degrees C for at least 30 min. The each magnesium carbenoids have their own unique reactivities and we could find many unprecedented reactions from these reactive species. Recent results for the developments of new synthetic methods based on the chemistry of magnesium carbenoids are described.

Recent advances in the chemistry of magnesium carbenoids

This tutorial review deals with recent advances in the chemistry and synthetic use of magnesium carbenoids. The reactivity of traditional carbenoids (alpha-haloalkyllithium species) was successfully reduced by using magnesium as the metal instead of lithium. Properties of these relatively stable carbenoids, magnesium carbenoids, were widely investigated and it was found that the magnesium carbenoids have very interesting reactivity toward several nucleophiles. The magnesium carbenoids, magnesium cyclopropylidenes, magnesium alkylidene carbenoids, and magnesium beta-oxido carbenoids are generated from alpha-chloroalkyl (or alpha-chloroalkenyl) aryl sulfoxides with a Grignard reagent at low temperature by sulfoxide-magnesium exchange reaction. The stability of the generated magnesium carbenoids and several new reactions based on the electrophilicity of the magnesium carbenoids, including 1,3-CH insertion, are reviewed. Magnesium carbenoids open up the new world of the chemistry of carbenoids.