Acyclic reductions

CARBON AND HETERO ATOM AGGREGATION, COMBINED WITH CYCLIC ACYCLIC REDUCTION WITH CARBON AND HETERO ATOM RANGES... 

A complex intramolecular reaction occurs with 5-iodoalkynes (Fig. 40).229 Some amounts of iodovinylidenecyclopentane are formed, which formally relates this reaction to the atom transfer cyclization methods developed by Curran.230 The relative amounts of the acyclic reduction product and the cyclic compounds depend on the substituents R and R, the stoichiometry, and the reaction conditions. 

Figure 2-34. Reduction of a substituted adamantane and phenylalanine to ring skeletons by pruning acyclic parts of the molecules.

Oxygen-containing azoles are readily reduced, usually with ring scission. Only acyclic products have been reported from the reductions with complex metal hydrides of oxazoles (e.g. 209 210), isoxazoles (e.g. 211 212), benzoxazoles (e.g. 213 214) and benzoxazolinones (e.g. 215, 216->214). Reductions of 1,2,4-oxadiazoles always involve ring scission. Lithium aluminum hydride breaks the C—O bond in the ring Scheme 19) 76AHC(20)65>. 

The most useful general criteria for the assessment of acyclic strategic disconnections are summarized below. Most of these are based on the retrosynthetic preservation of building blocks and expeditious reduction of molecular size and complexity. 

NMR and visible spectra have established that a number of S-N anions are present in such solutions.The primary reduction products are polysulfides Sx, which dissociate to polysulfur radical anions, especially the deep blue 83 ion (/Imax 620nm). In a IM solution the major S-N anion detected by NMR spectroscopy is cycZo-[S7N] with smaller amounts of the [SSNSS] ion and a trace of [SSNS]. The formation of the acyclic anion 5.23 from the decomposition of cyclo-Sjl is well established from chemical investigations (Section 5.4.3). The acyclic anions 5.22 and 5.23 have been detected by their characteristic visible and Raman spectra. It has also been suggested that a Raman band at 858 cm and a visible absorption band at 390 nm may be attributed to the [SaN] anion formed by cleavage of a S-S bond in [SSNS]. ° However, this anion cannot be obtained as a stable species when [SsN] is treated with one equivalent of PPhs. 

The reduction of enamides (62-73) has been applied primarily to the synthesis of cyclic enamines (74-76), but also to acyclic enamines (77). 

The chiral BOX-copper(ll) complexes, (S)-21a and (l )-21b (X=OTf, SbFg), were found by Evans et al. to catalyze the enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of the a,/ -unsaturated acyl phosphonates 49 with ethyl vinyl ether 46a and the cyclic enol ethers 50 giving the cycloaddition products 51 and 52, respectively, in very high yields and ee as outlined in Scheme 4.33 [38b]. It is notable that the acyclic and cyclic enol ethers react highly stereoselectively and that the same enantiomer is formed using (S)-21a and (J )-21b as the catalyst. It is, furthermore, of practical importance that the cycloaddition reaction can proceed in the presence of only 0.2 mol% (J )-21a (X=SbF6) with minimal reduction in the yield of the cycloaddition product and no loss of enantioselectivity (93% ee). 

Acylation of norephedrine (56) with the acid chloride from benzoylglycolic acid leads to the amide (57), Reduction with lithium aluminum hydride serves both to reduce the amide to the amine and to remove the protecting group by reduction (58), Cyclization by means of sulfuric acid (probably via the benzylic carbonium ion) affords phenmetrazine (59), In a related process, alkylation of ephedrine itself (60) with ethylene oxide gives the diol, 61, (The secondary nature of the amine in 60 eliminates the complication of dialkylation and thus the need to go through the amide.) Cyclization as above affords phendimetra-zine (62), - Both these agents show activity related to the parent acyclic molecule that is, the agents are CNS stimulants... 

In fact, it has been found (52) that in unbuffered solution, at room temperature, authentic 2-deoxy ribose 5-phosphate reduces more than 4 molar equivalents of periodate, but. that there is no noticeable slowing down of the reaction rate after the reduction of the first molar equivalent. This may be owing to the fact that only the aldehydo form (76) of 2-deoxy ribose 5-phosphate has a free vicinal diol group as the acyclic 2-deoxy ribitol 5-phosphate reduces one molar equivalent of periodate quite fast (58), it is probable that the time-curve of periodate uptake by the phosphorylated sugar reflects the rate of formation of the aldehyde form from the furanose form. 

Steroids are heavily modified triterpenoids that are biosynthesized in living organisms from farnesyl diphosphate (Cl5) by a reductive dimerization to the acyclic hydrocarbon squalene (C30), which is converted into lanosterol (Figure 27.12). Further rearrangements and degradations then take place to yield various steroids. The conversion of squalene to lanosterol is among the most... 

An alternative method for the preparation of AL(l-alkoxylalkyl)amides is the sodium borohy-dride reduction of A -acylimidates. Acyclic A-acylimidates are conveniently obtained by reaction of an acid chloride with an imidate47 in the presence of triethylamine. For acid-labile carboxylic acids a mild one-pot procedure has been developed48. 

The addition of sulphinyl chlorides to trimethylsilyl enol ether 138 affording a-ketosulphoxides 139 (equation 76) represents an extension of the reaction of sulphinyl chlorides with ketones. This reaction has attracted attention only recently. Sergeev and coworkers192 reported that treatment of sulphinyl chlorides with acyclic enol ethers afforded a-ketosulphoxides 139 in good to excellent yields. Meanwell and Johnson193 observed that in the case of cyclic enol ethers the corresponding sulphoxides were formed only in very low yields. They found, however, that the introduction of an equivalent amount of a Lewis acid into the reaction mixture markedly promotes the desired reaction, whereas the use of catalytic amounts of a Lewis acid led to a substantial reduction in the yield. This is most probably due to the formation of a complex, between the a-ketosulphoxide and the Lewis acid. 

A direct attack of nucleophiles on the sulfur atom of the sulfone or sulfoxide group in acyclic or large-ring sulfones and sulfoxides is rather rare, or unknown, excluding metal hydride reductions and/or reductive deoxygenations. The situation is completely different in the three-membered ring systems. 

At this stage, it is not possible to decide whether what little reduction that does occur on unstrained, acyclic or cyclic sulphones is occurring directly on the sulphone or whether reduction is indeed occurring on the a,a -dianion as was proposed by Weber70. Further work on the mechanisms of the LAH reactions with sulphones is thus needed to clarify the above proposals. 

An acyclic enone, 2-ethyl-l-phenylprop-2-en-l-one, was reduced with the yeast Pichia stipitis CCT 2617 [19cj. The reduction proceeded chemo- and enantioselec-tively to afford (S)-2-ethyl-l-phenylprop-2-en-l-ol (65% yield, >99% ee). XAD-7 was used to decrease and control the concentration of both the substrate and the product (Figure 8.25). 

Reduction of iV-(3-bromopropyl) imines gives a bromo-amine in situ, which cyclizes to the aziridine. Five-membered ring amines (pyrrolidines) can be prepared from alkenyl amines via treatment with N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) and then BusSnH. " Internal addition of amine to allylic acetates, catalyzed by Pd(PPh3)4, leads to cyclic products via a Sn2 reaction. Acyclic amines can be prepared by a closely related reaction using palladium catalysts. Three-membered cyclic amines (aziridines)... 

The reductive elimination of a variety of )3-substituted sulfones for the preparation of di-and tri-substituted olefins (e.g. 75 to 76) and the use of allyl sulfones as synthetic equivalents of the allyl dianion CH=CH—CHj , has prompted considerable interest in the [1,3]rearrangements of allylic sulfones ". Kocienski has thus reported that while epoxidation of allylic sulfone 74 with MCPBA in CH2CI2 at room temperature afforded the expected product 75, epoxidation in the presence of two equivalents of NaHCOj afforded the isomeric j ,y-epoxysulfone 77. Similar results were obtained with other a-mono- or di-substituted sulfones. On the other hand, the reaction of y-substituted allylic sulfones results in the isomerization of the double bond, only. The following addition-elimination free radical chain mechanism has been suggested (equations 45, 46). In a closely related and simultaneously published investigation, Whitham and coworkers reported the 1,3-rearrangement of a number of acyclic and cyclic allylic p-tolyl sulfones on treatment with either benzoyl peroxide in CCI4 under reflux or with... 

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