Diversification of Simple Arenes into Complex (Amino)cyclitols

Highly oxygenated cyclohexanes, including (amino)cyclitols, are featured in natural products possessing a notable range of biological activities. As such, these building blocks are valuable tools for medicinal chemistry. While de novo synthetic strategies have provided access to select compounds, challenges including stereochemical density and complexity have hindered the development of a general approach to (amino)cyclitol structures. This work reports the use of arenophile chemistry to access dearomatized intermediates which are amenable to diverse downstream transformations. Practical guidelines were developed for the synthesis of natural and non-natural (amino)cyclitols from simple arenes through a series of strategic functionalization events.