Highly Functionalized 1,2–Diamino Compounds through Reductive Amination of Amino Acid-Derived β–Keto Esters

1,2-Diamine derivatives are valuable building blocks to heterocyclic compounds and important precursors of biologically relevant compounds. In this respect, amino acid-derived β–keto esters are a suitable starting point for the synthesis of β,γ–diamino ester derivatives through a two-step reductive amination procedure with either simple amines or α–amino esters. AcOH and NaBH3CN are the additive and reducing agents of choice. The stereoselectivity of the reaction is still an issue, due to the slow imine-enamine equilibria through which the reaction occurs, affording mixtures of diastereoisomers that can be chromatographically separated. Transformation of the β,γ–diamino esters into pyrrolidinone derivatives allows the configuration assignment of the linear compounds, and constitutes an example of their potential application in the generation of molecular diversity.