Gold(III)-Catalyzed Glycosylation using Phenylpropiolate Glycosides: Phenylpropiolic Acid, An Easily Separable and Reusable Leaving Group.

An efficient and operationally simple gold(III)-catalyzed glycosylation protocol was developed using newly synthesized benchtop stable phenylpropiolate glycosyl (PPG) donors. Gold(III)-catalyzed activation of PPGs proceeds well with various carbohydrate and noncarbohydrate-based glycosyl acceptors and leads to their corresponding O/ N-glycosides in good to excellent yields with regeneration of reusable and easily separable phenylpropiolic acid. Differentially protected PPGs reacted well under the optimized reaction conditions. In particular, good anomeric selectivity was observed with mannosyl and rhamnosyl PPG donors. A preliminary mechanistic study reveals that the presence of a triple bond adjacent to the ester group is essential for activation, and PPG-based donor shows higher reactivity than analogous acetate and benzoate donors.