A-Amino enolates

Azlactone is commonly utilized as a precursor of a-quatemary a-amino acids and various heterocyclic compounds [28-30]. Because the enol form of azlactone has aromatic character, facile deprotonation from the C4-position affords the corresponding enolate under the influence of various bases. Interestingly, the enolate ion shows ambident reactivity and attacks the electrophile at either the C4-position (a-addition) or the C2-position (y-addition), thus acting as an a-amino enolate or an acyl anion equivalent, respectively (Fig. 1). The site-selectivity associated with this enolate seems to be heavily dependent on its stereoelectronic characteristics, and introduction of a bulky substituent into the Cl- or C4-position suppresses the nucleophilicity at the particular position. 

Similarly, 1-alkylpyrroles, indoles, furans, thiophenes [60], a-picoline [61], enols, malonates [76], and organometallic compounds [56, 62] react with acyl imines of trifluoropyruvates to give derivatives of a-trifluoromethyl a-amino acids... 

In a separate report, the Darzens reaction was recently used by Barluenga, Concellon, and coworkers for the preparation of enantiopure a"-amino a,P-epoxy ketones. Accordingly, the Z enolate of a"-amino a-bromo ketone 41 was generated with KHMDS at -100°C. Benzaldehyde was added, and trans epoxyketone 42 was isolated in 87% yield and >95% de. ... 

An important extension of the Knorr pyrrole synthesis developed by Cushman utilizes ketone enolates and BOC-protected a-amino aldehydes and ketones. Two examples (37, 38) are shown. 

The amino form is usually much more favored in the equilibrium between amino and imino forms than is the hydroxy form in the corresponding keto-enol equilibrium. Grab and XJtzinger suggest that in the case of a-amino- and a-hydroxy-pyrroles, structure 89 increases the mesomeric stabilization and thus offsets the loss of pyrrole resonance energy, but the increase due to structure 90 is not sufficient to offset this loss. Similar reasoning may apply to furans and... 

Carbohydrate-derived titanium cnolates also provide yvn-x-amino-/l-hydroxy esters of high diastcrcomeric and enantiomeric purity. For this purpose, the lithium enolate derived from ethyl (2,2,5,5-tetramcthyl-2,5-disilapyrrolidin-l-yl)acetate is first transmctalated with chloro(cy-clopentadienyl)bis(1,2 5,6-di-0-isopropylidene-a-D-glucofuranos-3-0-yl)titanium and subsequently reacted with aldehydes.. vj-n-a-Amino-/ -hydroxy esters are almost exclusively obtained via a predominant /te-side attack (synjanti 92 8 to 96 4 87-98% ee for the xvn-adducts)623-b. 

The addition of a-amino-substituted lithium enolates to a,/ -unsaturated esters is a diastereoselective route to syn- or anti-glutamic acid derivatives and also to fratw-substituted 5-oxo-2-pyrrolidinecarboxylates. 

Thus, the dianion derived from a-amino acid substitutes the /1-chloride to give the ester of 2-(phenylsulfonyl)ethenyl amino acid and subsequent desulfonylation provides N-(benzoyl)vinylalanine methyl ester (62) (equation 61). The conjugate addition of enolates to methyl styryl sulfone (63) and subsequent intramolecular addition to the carbonyl moiety provide a synthetically valuable method for the construction of bicyclic and tricyclic skeletons52. Desulfonylation of the cyclization product 64 with sodium in ethanol-THF gives the diene 65 in good yield (equation 62). 

Alternatively, Cushman has devised a facile route to pyrroles by the reaction of Boc-a-amino aldehydes or ketones 14 with the lithium enolates of ketones 15 to afford aldol intermediates 16 which cyclize to pyrroles 17 under mild acidic conditions <96JOC4999>. This method offers several advantages over the Knorr since it employs readily available Boc-a-amino aldehydes or ketones and utilizes simple ketones instead of the p-diketo compounds or p-keto esters normally used in the Knorr. 

Scheme 18 Reagent-induced enantioselective catalytic synthesis of 2,3-diamino esters by addition of a-amino and a-iminoester enolates to imines...

Scheme 27 Addition of nitronates, enolates and silyl ketene acetals to chiral a-amino imines and iminium ions...

Thus, a reversal of the diastereoseleetivity of the reaetion was observed if the enolate was prepared in the presenee of a lithiated base. The different behaviour of the base could be attributable to the geometry of the enolate. It was assumed that the use of KOH as a base would give predominantly the E enolate, whereas the Z enolate would be formed with a lithiated base such as LiN(TMS)2- This methodology was applied to the asymmetric synthesis of quaternary a-amino acids starting from an imino alaninate compound. 

Enolates of allyl esters of a-amino acids are also subject to chelation-controlled Claisen rearrangement.249... 

A new chiral auxiliary based on a camphor-derived 8-lactol has been developed for the stereoselective alkylation of glycine enolate in order to give enantiomerically pure a-amino acid derivatives. As a key step for the synthesis of this useful auxiliary has served the rc-selective hydroformylation of a homoallylic alcohol employing the rhodium(I)/XANTPHOS catalyst (Scheme 11) [56]. 

The reactions with a combination of (DHQ)2-PHAL [or (DHQD)2-PHAL] and /V-halosulfo-namides can be successfully applied to trans-olefins. Especially when the substrates are a,j3-unsaturated esters, high regioselectivity as well as good enantioselectivity is realized (Scheme 55).210,211 The use of an /V-halosulfonamide bearing a smaller A-substituent increases the enantioselectivity.211 n-Propanol/water (1 1) is the solvent of choice. Aminohydroxylation of silyl enol ethers has been successfully performed with DHQD-CL or (DHQD)2-PYR, to give the corresponding a-amino ketones.212... 

The ring-opening of the cyclopropane nitrosourea 233 with silver trifiate followed by stereospecific [4 + 2] cycloaddition yields 234 [129]. (Scheme 93) Oxovanadium(V) compounds, VO(OR)X2, are revealed to be Lewis acids with one-electron oxidation capability. These properties permit versatile oxidative transformations of carbonyl and organosilicon compounds as exemplified by ring-opening oxygenation of cyclic ketones [130], dehydrogenative aroma-tization of 2-eyclohexen-l-ones [131], allylic oxidation of oc,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds [132], decarboxylative oxidation of a-amino acids [133], oxidative desilylation of silyl enol ethers [134], allylic silanes, and benzylic silanes [135]. 

At low temperatures cyclopropenones and enamines or ketene acetals were shown to yield 2-azonia-bicyclo(3,l, 0)hex-3-enolates-3 (371, X=0), which can be isomerized thermally to penta-2,4-diene amides(372, X=0). At elevated temperatures the amides were found to be the principal products arising from C-N-insertion 237) (insertion of the cyclopropenone three-carbon unit into the C-N bond of the enamine). These were accompanied in some cases by 3-aminoenones 373 arising from C-C-insertion 237) (insertion of the cyclopropenone into the C-C double bond of the enamine) and a-amino cyclopentenones 375 formed by Stevens rearrangement of the ylide 369 and cyclopentenones 374 ( condensation 237)). 

In addition to the asymmetric induction mentioned above, sultam 53 can also be used to prepare enantiomerically pure amino acids (Scheme 2-29 and Table 2-10).55 Me AI-mediated acylation of 53 with methyl A-[bis(methylthio)-methylene]glycinate 56 provided, after crystallization, glycinate 57, which can serve as a common precursor for various a-amino acids. In agreement with a kinetically controlled formation of chelated (Z)-enolates, alkylation happened from the SZ-face of the a-C, opposite to the lone pair electrons on the sultam nitrogen atom. High overall yield for both the free amino acid 58 and the... 

This strategy also gives access to a variety of non-natural a-amino acids. Furthermore, rhodium-DuPHOS complexes catalyse the asymmetric reduction of enol esters of the type PhCH = CH — C(OCOCH3) = CH2 to give (R)-2-acetoxy-4-phenylbut-3-ene (94% ee)[64]. 

Amination. Three laboratories2-4 have reported use of esters of azodicarbox-ylic acid for amination of chiral substrates to provide a synthesis of optically active a-hydrazino and a-amino acids. The di-r-butyl ester is particularly useful because the diastereoselectivity improves with increasing size of the ester group, and in addition these esters are hydrolyzed by TFA at 25°. Two laboratories21 used the lithium enolates of chiral N-acyloxazolidones (2) as the chiral precursors. A typical procedure is outlined in equation (I). Thus reaction of the lithium enolate of 2... 

Further variations of the Claisen rearrangement protocol were also utilized for the synthesis of allenic amino acid derivatives. Whereas the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement led to unsatisfactory results [133b], a number of variously substituted a-allenic a-amino acids were prepared by Kazmaier [135] by chelate-controlled Claisen rearrangement of ester enolates (Scheme 18.47). For example, deprotonation of the propargylic ester 147 with 2 equiv. of lithium diisopropylamide and transmetallation with zinc chloride furnished the chelate complex 148, which underwent a highly syn-stereoselective rearrangement to the amino acid derivative 149. 

Only limited precedent exists for the stereoselective enolization and subsequent condensation of a-heteroatom-substituted esters 48a and 48b (eq. [29]). Ireland has examined the enolization process for a-amino ester derivatives where the Claisen rearrangement (chair-preferred transition states) was employed to ascertain enolate geometry (Scheme 10) (43). These results imply that 48a [X = N(CH2Ph)2 ] exhibits only modest selectivity for ( )-enoIate formation under the... 

The enolization (LDA, THF) and subsequent condensation of a-amino ester 53a under kinetic conditions affords low levels of kinetic aldol diastereoselection. From the preceding discussion it is probable that the major enolate derived from 53a possesses the E)-geometry. The observation that moderate levels of erythro diastereoselection are observed with benzaldehyde (Table 16) are consistent... 

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