No abstract

Boric acid promoted transfer hydrogenation of substituted quinolines to synthetically versatile 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines (1,2,3,4-THQs) was described under mild reaction conditions using a Hantzsch ester as a mild organic hydrogen source.

A regioselective cyanation of heteroaromatic N-oxides with trimethylsilyl cyanide has been developed to obtain 2-substituted N-heteroaromatic nitrile without the requirement of any external activator-, metal-, base-, and solvent. The present protocol is a straightforward, one-pot heteroaromatic CÀ H cyanation process, and proceeds smoothly in conventional heating but also under microwave irradiation with shorter reaction times. This approach now allows access to a broad class of quinoline N-oxides and other heteroarene N-oxides with high to good yields and can also be scaled up to obtain gram quantities. Further application of this process was observed and utilized in late-stage cyanation of the anti-malarial drug quinine as well as transformation of the 2-cyanoazines to a series of biologically important molecules. Based on the experimental observations, a plausible mechanism has also been proposed highlighting the dual role of trimethylsilyl cyanide as a nitrile source and as an activating agent.

The synthesis of N-heterocycles has been considered an emerging area of chemical research due to their extensive utilization in pharmaceuticals, materials science, and natural product synthesis.

An improved method to synthesize the highly abundant and biomedically important urinary metabolite 3-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-3-hydroxypropionic acid (HPHPA) is reported. The modified protocol is based on an indium-mediated sonochemical Reformatsky reaction. The synthesis is a simple two-step route as opposed to a complex four-step route previously reported in the literature that requires specialized equipment, flammable materials, and high-pressure reaction vessels. The described procedure also provides an expedient route to prepare a 13C isotopically labeled HPHPA that can be used as a standard for quantitative LC-MS analysis. This report also illustrates how the synthesized metabolite standard was used to detect and accurately quantify its presence in human urine samples using both NMR and LC-MS techniques.