Stereoselective addition to furanones

Agata Marta Ochocinska, a.m.ochocinska@rdg.ac.uk and Joseph Sweeney, j.b.sweeney@reading.ac.uk. Department of Chemistry, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AD, United Kingdom
Small heterocyclic molecules, such as lactones, are often found in bioactive compounds and are therefore of great importance. Depending on the functional groups present, they are generally synthesized by ring closure of hydroxy acid derivatives. Novel methodology for the catalytic conjugate addition of nucleophiles to furanone species has been developed in our group, leading to lactones with good control of the stereochemistry. This methodology and efforts to apply it to more complicated systems will be discussed in this presentation.