Direct synthesis of anomeric tetrazolyl iminosugars from sugar-derived lactams

Herein we present the direct asymmetric synthesis of tetrazole-functionalized 1-deoxynojirimycin derivatives from simple sugars via a Schwartz’s reagent-mediated reductive amide functionalization followed by a variant of the Ugi–azide multicomponent reaction. The anomeric configurations of two products were unambiguously confirmed by X-ray analysis. This work also describes examples of interesting further transformations of the title products. Finally, some surprising observations regarding the mechanism of their formation were made.