Arun Jyoti Borah

Use of Bromine and Bromo-Organic Compounds in Organic Synthesis

Bromination is one of the most important transformations in organic synthesis and can be carried out using bromine and many other bromo compounds. Use of molecular bromine in organic synthesis is well-known. However, due to the hazardous nature of bromine, enormous growth has been witnessed in the past several decades for the development of solid bromine carriers. This review outlines the use of bromine and different bromo-organic compounds in organic synthesis. The applications of bromine, a total of 107 bromo-organic compounds, 11 other brominating agents, and a few natural bromine sources were incorporated. The scope of these reagents for various organic transformations such as bromination, cohalogenation, oxidation, cyclization, ring-opening reactions, substitution, rearrangement, hydrolysis, catalysis, etc. has been described briefly to highlight important aspects of the bromo-organic compounds in organic synthesis.

Formation of Cyclohepta[b]indole Scaffolds via Heck Cyclization: A Strategy for Structural Analogues of Ervatamine Group of Indole Alkaloid

Ervatamine, silicine, methuenine, etc., are naturally occurring alkaloids that exhibit antimicrobial, anticancer, and anti-HIV activities. Indole fused with a seven-membered carbocyclic ring is a commonly observed structural feature among this series of bioactive compounds. This work describes a strategic approach for the synthesis of cyclohepta[b]indole structural scaffolds. The synthetic strategy consists of a solvent-free Baylis-Hillman reaction of 2-bromobenzaldehydes, followed by iodine-catalyzed C-alkylation of indole with the Baylis-Hillman adducts. Finally, intramolecular Heck coupling reaction using Pd(OAc)2 as catalyst in the presence of benzyltrimethylammonium bromide under microwave condition produced the desired cyclohepta[b]indole derivatives.