Catalytic epoxide oxidation: a novel access to flavouring and odorant α‐diketones

Abstract The catalytic oxidation of epoxides to α‐diketones provides a novel access to a variety of flavouring compounds and odorants. This alternative synthetic strategy involves an oxidation reaction catalysed by commercially available reagents and affords four cyclic and acyclic α‐diketones presenting interesting organoleptic properties. The availability of epoxides, easily obtained by olefin epoxidation, and the possibility of obtaining α‐diketones with a variety of structures gives a high potential to this method. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.