Acid-catalyzed reactions, biomimetic

A biomimetic synthesis of solerone (5-oxo-4-hexanolide) 1 using both enzymatic and acid-catalyzed reactions was performed. Starting from L-glutamic acid 5-ethyl ester 2 enzymatic oxidative deamination followed by subsequent decarboxylation of the corresponding 2-oxoglutaric acid 5-ethyl ester 3 led to ethyl 4-oxobutanoate 4. In the presence of pyruvate,... 

The factors that control the feasibility and the stereochemical course of the coupling process, as well as the methods to establish the configuration at C(4) of the condensation products and the mode of interflavanyl linkage were sufficiently reviewed (4, 27-29). Acid-catalyzed reactions to produce flavan-4-carbocations or A-ring quinone methides that may react with the A-rings of flavan-3-ols to produce oligo- and polymeric proanthocyanidins have been so successfully employed that they were called biomimetic syntheses (39, 40). The most recent variations of this theme are now briefly discussed. The nomenclature delineated in ref. (1) will be consistently employed. 

The elegance of this simple biomimetic approach to the synthesis of proanthocyanidin oligomers was demonstrated during synthesis of the mixed profisetinidin trimers (22) and (23), i.e. analogues possessing different ABC and GHI chain extender units. Triflavanoid (22) with its fisetinidol ABC and epifisetinidol GHI units was formed by acid-catalyzed reaction of fisetinidol-(4a->8)-catechin (24) (57) and epifise-... 

Naturally occurring monoterpene alcohols were heated in water without prior deriva-tization with typical biological water-solubilizing groups such as phosphates or glyco-sidic units. Biomimetic reactions that normally would be acid-catalyzed, proceeded on the underivatized compounds in the absence of added acidulant. Cooling of the mixtures rendered the products insoluble, readily isolable and the aqueous phase did not require neutralization before workup. 

Other approaches to the stereoselective total synthesis of nonaromatic steroids include the carbocationic, biomimetic cyclizntion reactions. Generally, these cyclizations begin with the synthesis of an appropriately functionalized cyclopentenol. Acid-catalyzed cyclization forms the B-C-D rings of the steroid nucleus with the natural relative stereochemistry in a single step. 

Resorcinols. Condensation of this diene with the ketal of a fi- keto acid derivative results in a resorcinol with complete regiocontrol. Thus, the TiCl4-catalyzed reaction of 1 with ketal ester 2 results in the resorcinol 3 in 72% yield. However, use of the acid chloride 4 corresponding to 2 in the same reaction results in the isomeric resorcinol, methyl olivetolate (5). The regiocontrol is based on the reactiv ity order acid chloride > ketal > ester. The resorcinol 5 was used in a biomimetic synthesis of the chromene A1 -tetrahydrocannabinol (6), a component of marijuana. 

A method based on the DKR of 4-substituted-2-phenyloxazolin-5-one has been apphed to the large-scale synthesis of N-benzoyl-t-t-leucine-butyl ester 19, an important non-natural amino acid intermediate of several biomimetic peptides. The procedure is based on the alcoholysis of 4-t-butyl-2-phenyloxazoUn-5-one 18 with -butanol catalyzed by the lipase from Mucor miehei (Scheme 13.15) [42]. The unreactive enantiomer is racemized in situ by a base-catalyzed reaction. The... 

Significantly, the ionic product (dissociation constant) of water also is greatly influenced by temperature, increasing by three orders of magnitude from 1013-99 at 25 C to 10"-30 at 300 C (P). Water is therefore a much stronger acid and base at elevated temperatures than at ambient. These properties of water can be exploited with the microwave reactors, so biomimetic reactions that would normally be acid-catalyzed, can be earned out in the absence of added acidulant. 

Recently, 9 (Figure 6.5) was shown to catalyze the biomimetic transformation of a-keto esters to a-amino acids with various functional groups [39]. The reaction is pictured in Scheme 6.17 as involving imine isomerization catalyzed by 9 prior to hydrolysis and the favored formation of the a-amino ester in the (R) configuration. Various phenylalanine derivatives could be obtained by this reaction. The reaction worked equally well for a-keto esters with an aromatic or aliphatic group and for esters with an ether or thioether function in addition to the a-carbonyl group. 

The biomimetic-type cyclization of polyisoprenoids is an important industrial process for terpene synthesis. In most cases, a large excess of coned. H SO and SnCl. has been employed For example, ionone, a precursor of vitamin A, is prepared by coned. H2SO4 catalyzed cyclization of pseudoionone. The disadvantage of this process is undoubtedly the requirement of bases to neutralize the large excess of acid. The EGA method offers a promising alternative for this purpose. Thus, Electrolysis of 15 and 17 in a ClCHjCH Cl—LiClO —Et NClO — (Pt) system provides 16 and 18, respectively in reasonable yields and the neutralization of the reaction solution can be performed simply by addition of a small amount of pyridine... 

Soloshonok and co-workers have developed a method for the synthesis of a-(perfluoro-alkyl)amines from perfluoroalkyl carbonyl compounds by a transamination involving an azomethine a/omethine (Schiffbase) isomerization. They call this method a biomimetic, base-catalyzed 1,3-proton shift reaction, and have applied it to perfluoroaldehydes,12-15 perfluoroalkyl ketones,12 18 / -(perfluoroalkyl)-/l-oxo esters,15 16 19 24 and - -( perfluoroalkyl)-a-oxo es-ters2 " -26 to synthesize the corresponding a-(perfluoroalkyl)amincs, / -(perfluoroalkyl )-/i-amino acids, and 3 -(perfluoroalkyl)- x-amino acids. 

---