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Updated: Jul 20, 2025

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine
Published on: February 16, 2018
Highly Enantioselective Catalytic Lactonization at Nonactivated Primary and Secondary γ-C-H Bonds
Arnau Call1, Giorgio Capocasa1, Andrea Palone1
1Institut de Química Computacional i Catàlisi (IQCC) and Departament de Química, Universitat de Girona, Campus Montilivi, Girona E-17071, Catalonia, Spain.
Abstract:
Chiral oxygenated aliphatic moieties are recurrent in biological and pharmaceutically relevant molecules and constitute one of the most versatile types of functionalities for further elaboration. Herein we report a protocol for straightforward and general access to chiral γ-lactones via enantioselective oxidation of strong nonactivated primary and secondary C(sp)-H bonds in readily available carboxylic acids. The key enabling aspect is the use of robust sterically encumbered manganese catalysts that provide outstanding enantioselectivities (up to >99.9%) and yields (up to 96%) employing hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. The resulting γ-lactones are of immediate interest for the preparation of inter alia natural products and recyclable polymeric materials.
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