A simple and efficient method for the synthesis of unsaturated branched-chain sugars in aqueous media has been achieved using a palladium-catalyzed Heck-type reaction, and unprotected substrate can also be used in these reactions.
Unprotected glycals smoothly react with trimethylsilyl cyanide in the presence of a catalytic amount of Pd(OAc)(2) to yield the corresponding unprotected glycosyl cyanides in high yield. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.