A series of novel aza-brazilan derivatives containing imidazolium salt pharmacophores were synthesized and their antitumor structure–activity relationship studies were reported.

A general and versatile alkenylation protocol for the synthesis of vinyl-azaarylmethylamines has been developed. Enabled by a palladium/NIXANTPHOS catalyst, this protocol provides efficient access to a large variety of Nheterocycles bearing allylic amines in up to 98% yield. A wide variety of azaarylmethylamines bearing 2-pyridylmethyl, 4-pyridylmethyl, 2-(aminomethyl)quinoline aryl motifs and diverse 5 to 7 membered cyclic amines were well tolerated. A gram scale reaction was also used to demonstrate the scalability. This method can be readily adopted by medicinal chemists to prepare valuable scaffolds that were previously difficult to access.