Ceric ammonium nitrate-catalyzed azidation of 1,2-anhydro sugars: application in the synthesis of structurally diverse sugar-derived morpholine 1,2,3-triazoles and 1,4-oxazin-2-ones.

Azidation of 1,2-anhydro sugars with NaN(3) in CH(3)CN by using a catalytic amount of ceric ammonium nitrate has been accomplished in a regio- and stereoselective manner. Various 1,2-anhydro sugars produced 2-hydroxy-1-azido sugars in good yields which, in turn, were converted to structurally diverse sugar-derived morpholine triazoles and sugar oxazin-2-ones. These sugar derivatives were tested against various commercially available glycosidases, and two of them were found to be active in the micromolar range.