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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine
Published on: February 16, 2018
A short scalable route to (-)-α-kainic acid using Pt-catalyzed direct allylic amination
Ming Zhang1, Kenji Watanabe, Masafumi Tsukamoto
1Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Science, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582 (Japan) http://green.phar.kyushu-u.ac.jp.
Abstract:
An increased supply of scarce or inaccessible natural products is essential for the development of more sophisticated pharmaceutical agents and biological tools, and thus the development of atom-economical, step-economical and scalable processes to access these natural products is in high demand. Herein we report the development of a short, scalable total synthesis of (-)-α-kainic acid, a useful compound in neuropharmacology that is, however, limited in supply from natural resources. The synthesis features sequential platinum-catalyzed direct allylic aminations and thermal ene-cyclization, enabling the gram-scale synthesis of (-)-α-kainic acid in six steps and 34% overall yield.
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