Cover Picture: L ‐Lysine/imidazole‐catalyzed Multicomponent Cascade Reaction: Facile Synthesis of C5‐substituted 3‐Methylcyclohex‐2‐enones (Chin. J. Chem. 8/2013)

The cover picture shows a facile and green approach for the direct synthesis of C5‐substituted 3‐methylcyclohex‐2‐enones via the Aldol‐Robinson cascade reactions. Lysine is the active center of type‐I aldolase and could effectively catalyze the aldol reaction between aldehydes and acetones. Inspired by the catalytic mechanism of type‐I aldolase, L ‐lysine/imidazole catalytic system was designed to catalyze the cascade reaction to produce a series of C5‐substituted 3‐methylcyclohex‐2‐ enones with a versatile aldehyde group with the yields of 16% –92%. The use of simple and readily available materials, mild reaction conditions, simple execution, good yields, and wide synthetic potential of the products, make this new catalytic system attractive for academic research and practical applications. More details are discussed in the article by Lin et al . on page 997–1002.