Wacker Oxidation of Allylic Phthalimides: A Catalytic Route to β-Amino Acids

Significance

The authors report here a new catalytic method for the synthesis of β-amino acids and β-aminoaldehydes via palladium-catalyzed oxidation of protected allylamines as a key step. Together with a simple catalytic enantioselective synthesis of the starting compounds, this method affords a straightforward preparation of a variety of key structural elements of peptidomimetics and natural products.