Herein we report on the development of novel glycosylation methodology for the concise synthesis of naturally occurring glycoconjugate motifs containing N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) from the cheaper and commercially available N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc). The stereoselective glycosylations proceed with catalytic amounts of a promoter and without the need for N-protection other than the biologically relevant N-acetyl group. Among the catalysts explored, both Bi(OTf)3 and Fe(OTf)3 were found to be highly active Lewis acids for this reaction. It was also found that other less reactive metal triflates such as those of Cu(II) and Yb(III) can be beneficial in glycosylation reactions on more demanding glycosyl acceptors. We have furthermore demonstrated that it is possible to control the anomeric stereoselectivity in the glycosylation via postglycosylation in situ anomerization to obtain good yields of α-galactosides. The present protocol was used to prepare important naturally occurring carbohydrate motifs, including a trisaccharide fragment of the naturally occurring marine sponge clarhamnoside.

The monosaccharide N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (GlcNAc) is an abundant building block in naturally occurring oligosaccharides, but its incorporation by chemical glycosylation is challenging since direct reactions are low yielding. This issue, generally agreed upon to be caused by an intermediate 1,2-oxazoline, is often bypassed by introducing extra synthetic steps to avoid the presence of the NHAc functional group during glycosylation. The present paper describes new fundamental mechanistic insights into the inherent challenges of performing direct glycosylation with GlcNAc. These results show that controlling the balance of oxazoline formation and glycosylation is key to achieving acceptable chemical yields. By applying this line of reasoning to direct glycosylation with a traditional thioglycoside donor of GlcNAc, which otherwise affords poor glycosylation yields, one may obtain useful glycosylation results.

We describe the β‐ortho‐methoxybenzoate as a shelf stable and practical C‐1 nucleofuge for catalytic chemical glycosylation in which the benzoic acid by‐product can be easily removed, reisolated, and potentially recycled after the glycosylation reaction. This new type of glycosyl donor can be efficiently activated by a range of promoters, including Bi(OTf)3, Fe(OTf)3, TMSOTf (TMS = trimethylsilyl), and triflic acid, with low (<10 mol‐%) catalyst loadings. The donor shows higher reactivity than analogous benzoate, p‐methoxybenzoate and p‐cyano‐o‐methoxybenzoate donors. In glycosylation reactions with o‐methoxybenzoate donors, the yields of disaccharide products were good to excellent for various glycosyl acceptors, including a carbohydrate‐based secondary alcohol. Furthermore, β‐selective mannosylation was achieved with a Crich‐type donor at 0 °C to ambient temperature, without donor preactivation. The donor was also used for the first step of a one‐pot two‐step glycosylation to obtain a trisaccharide; the second coupling involved activation of a thioglycoside with NIS/TMSOTf (NIS = N‐iodosuccinimide). We believe that this offers a good alternative to current protocols.