Naphthoquinone derivatives have important pharmacological properties. They have been explored for their anti-inflammatory, antifungal and antitumor biological activities amongst many others. Therefore, efficient syntheses of naphthoquinines are of great interest.
In this paper, Jian Wang and his team at the National University of Singapore, have developed a new catalytic synthetic method for the preparation of chiral naphthoquinones with a novel chiral thiourea catalyst. They achieve excellent yields (94-99%) and excellent enantioselectivities (90-98% ee)
Read more about this new and very efficient synthesis in this HOT paper which is free to access until 14th May.
Enantioselective organocatalytic Michael-hemiketalization catalyzed by a trans-bifunctional indane thiourea catalyst
Yaojun Gao, Qiao Ren, Swee-Meng Ang and Jian Wang
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05404J
