Rapid synthesis of the pentacyclic core structure of macroline-type indole alkaloids, and its application in the total synthesis of macroline and alstomicine is described. The core structure was accomplished in a highly stereocontrolled manner via two key steps, Ireland-Claisen rearrangement and Pictet-Spengler cyclization, commencing from a readily available starting material l-tryptophan, which obviated the need of a particular chiral source as an external catalyst, reagent, or internal auxiliary.

An environmentally benign and highly substrate-protic ionic liquid controlled synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted and 2-substituted benzimidazoles with outstanding selectivity is demonstrated through grinding a mixture of OPD, aldehydes and catalyst.

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A divergent approach to highly substituted functionalized indenes has been developed. The two‐step reaction involving nucleophilic addition reaction of aryl vinyl ketone, an ideal intermediate with aryl or alkyl nucleophilic reagent, followed by electrocyclic reaction (Nazarov cyclization) in the presence of Lewis acid catalyst afforded indene derivatives in good to excellent yield.

Sustainable and highly efficient one-pot multicomponent syntheses of functionalized imidazole derivatives were described using benzil, aldehydes, ammonium acetate/or amines in the presence of Amberlite IR 120H + . The products were obtained in the short period of time with high yields through the chromatography-free procedure. The catalyst could be recycled due to its insolubility in most of the solvents and reused without any noticeable decrease in its catalytic activity. The novel strategy was exploited for synthesis of a designed substituted imidazole, fabrication of its nanostructured materials on LB films and AFM imaging.[a] M.