An environmentally benign and highly efficient procedure for the nucleophilic addition of trimethylsilyl cyanide to imines (Strecker reaction) has been developed under biomimetic conditions in water in the presence of beta-cyclodextrin to afford alpha-aminonitriles in quantitative yields. The use of cyclodextrin precludes the use of either acid or base, and the catalyst can be recycled a number of times without loss in activity.

A mild and efficient oxidation of alcohols with o-iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX) catalyzed by beta-cyclodextrin in a water/acetone mixture (86:14) has been developed. A series of alcohols were oxidized at room temperature in excellent yields.

No abstract

An environmentally benign and highly efficient procedure has been developed for the direct one-pot synthesis of beta-hydroxysulfides in good yields under neutral conditions from alkenes and thiophenols in the presence of aerial oxygen using beta-cyclodextrin in water. This protocol tolerates a wide variety of functional groups or substrates and does not require the use of either acid or base catalysts. beta-Cyclodextrin can be recovered and reused for a number of runs without any loss of activity.

No abstract