Such rearrangements take place by a shift of a neighboring alkyl group or hydrogen, and are favored when the rearranged carbocation is more stable than the initial cation. The addition of HCl to 3,3-dimethyl-1-butene, for example, leads to an unexpected product, 2-chloro-2,3-dimethylbutane, in somewhat greater yield than 3-chloro-2,2-dimethylbutane, the expected Markovnikov product. This surprising result may be explained by a carbocation rearrangement of the initially formed 2º-carbocation to a 3º-carbocation by a 1,2-shift of a methyl group. Another factor that may induce rearrangement of carbocation intermediates is strain. The addition of HCl to α-pinene, the major hydrocarbon component of turpentine, gives the rearranged product, bornyl chloride, in high yield. As shown in the following equation, this rearrangement converts a 3º-carbocation to a 2º-carbocation, a transformation that is normally unfavorable. However, the rearrangement also expands a strained four-membered ring to a much less-strained five-membered ring, and this relief of strain provides a driving force for the rearrangement.

SUMMARY Monoterpene synthases (MTSs) catalyze the first committed step in the biosynthesis of monoterpenoids, a class of specialized metabolites with particularly high chemical diversity in angiosperms. In addition to accomplishing a rate enhancement, these enzymes manage the formation and turnover of highly reactive carbocation intermediates formed from a prenyl diphosphate substrate. At each step along the reaction path, a cationic intermediate can be subject to cyclization, migration of a proton, hydride, or alkyl group, or quenching to terminate the sequence. However, enzymatic control of ligand folding, stabilization of specific intermediates, and defined quenching chemistry can maintain the specificity for forming a signature product. This review article will discuss our current understanding of how angiosperm MTSs control the reaction environment. Such knowledge allows inferences about the origin and regulation of chemical diversity, which is pertinent for appreciating the role of monoterpenoids in plant ecology but also for aiding commercial efforts that harness the accumulation of these specialized metabolites for the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries.

Terpenoids exhibit remarkable structural diversity, including highly complex ring-expanded or contracted carbocyclic skeletons. This review aims to explore intriguing examples of such ring-size alterations in all aspects of terpenoid synthesis. The current state-of-the-art regarding proposed biosynthetic pathways for terpenoids with unusual carbon skeleta, occurring either during initial cyclisation or subsequent oxidative tailoring, will be examined and discussed. Where possible, biogenetic relationships of closely related families of natural products will be contextualised by showing the mechanistic rationale for their interconversion. In the second part of this article, the application of bioinspired ring contraction and ring-expansion strategies in relevant natural product syntheses will be presented, demonstrating how synthetic chemistry can help to elucidate plausible biogenetic routes for structurally complex natural products.

Cyclic carbocations are important intermediates in zeolite-catalyzed chemistries such as methanol-to-hydrocarbons conversion, naphthenes ring opening, or coke formation. While information about their thermodynamic stability exists, little is known about the kinetics of formation and transformation of cyclic carbocations in zeolites. To fill this knowledge gap, ring contraction of the 1,3,5,5-tetramethylcyclohexenyl cation (C 10 H 17 + ), a representative of 6-membered ring allylic cations, was investigated by in situ UV–vis and IR spectroscopy. Protonic forms of zeolites served as catalysts, at temperatures from 80 °C to 135 °C. Significant oligomerization and hydride transfer in BEA and FAU hampered kinetics analysis, whereas ring contraction dominated in the channels of MOR. The reactant cation, characterized by an electronic absorption at 314 nm and an allylic stretch at 1549 cm −1 , contracted to both a 1,3-alkyl-substituted cyclopentenyl cation (287 nm and 1506 cm −1 ) and a 1,2,3-alkyl-substituted cyclopentenyl cation (297 nm and 1489 cm −1 ). Collection of time-resolved IR spectra and fitting of the intensities with various kinetic models revealed a third transformation, which is expected from thermodynamics: the 1,3-alkyl-substituted cyclopentenyl cation isomerizes to the 1,2,3-alkyl-substituted cyclopentenyl cation. Series of IR spectra recorded at different temperatures delivered intrinsic activation enthalpies (entropies) in MOR of 67 ± 2 kJ mol −1 (−130 ± 6 J mol