Chemoenzymatic synthesis of the alarm pheromone (+)-verbenone from geranyl diphosphate

α-Substituted ketones or aldehydes can be synthesized from enamines by the Stork enamine reaction, named after its pioneer Gilbert Stork. Enamines are useful synthetic intermediates where the lone pair on nitrogen is in conjugation with the C=C bond. They resemble enolate ions, as the resonance forms of both species have a nucleophilic α carbon.

Direct alkylation is not a suitable method for synthesizing amines because it produces polyalkylated products. Gabriel synthesis is the most preferred method to exclusively make primary amines. The method uses phthalimide, which contains a protected form of nitrogen that participates in alkylation only once to predominantly give primary amines.
Strong bases like NaOH or KOH deprotonate the phthalimide to form the corresponding anion, which acts as a nucleophile. Further, the anion attacks an...

The Diels–Alder reaction is one of the robust methods for synthesizing unsaturated six-membered rings. The reaction involves a concerted cyclic movement of six π electrons: four π electrons from the diene and two π electrons from the dienophile.

Birch reduction uses solvated electrons as reducing agents. The reaction converts benzene to 1,4-cyclohexadiene. The reaction proceeds by the transfer of a single electron to the ring to form a benzene radical anion. This anion is highly basic—it abstracts a proton from the alcohol to form a cyclohexadienyl radical. Another single electron transfer gives the cyclohexadienyl anion. A proton transfer from the alcohol forms 1,4-cyclohexadiene. Since this reduction occurs via radical anion...

The synthesis of phenol from benzene via cumene and cumene hydroperoxide is called the Hock process. First, a Friedel–Crafts alkylation reaction of benzene with propene gives cumene. Then cumene forms cumene hydroperoxide via a radical chain reaction. In the chain initiation step, the benzylic hydrogen is abstracted to give a benzylic radical. In the chain propagation step, the benzylic radical reacts with an oxygen diradical to form a cumene hydroperoxide radical. The cumene hydroperoxide...

Catalytic hydrogenation of alkenes is a transition-metal catalyzed reduction of the double bond using molecular hydrogen to give alkanes. The mode of hydrogen addition follows syn stereochemistry.
The metal catalyst used can be either heterogeneous or homogeneous. When hydrogenation of an alkene generates a chiral center, a pair of enantiomeric products is expected to form. However, an enantiomeric excess of one of the products can be facilitated using an enantioselective reaction or an...