Acyloins vicinal diols

The hydroxynitrile lyase (HNL) class of enzymes, also referred to as oxynitrilases, consists of enzymes that catalyze the formation of chiral cyanohydrins by the stereospecific addition of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) to aldehydes and ketones (Scheme 19.36).275 279 These chiral cyanohydrins are versatile synthons, which can be further modified to prepare chiral a-hydroxy acids, a-hydroxy aldehydes and ketones, acyloins, vicinal diols, ethanolamines, and a- and P-amino acids, to name a few.280 Both (R)- and (.S )-selective HNLs have been isolated, usually from plant sources, where their natural substrates play a role in defense mechanisms of the plant through the release of HCN. In addition to there being HNLs with different stereo-preferences, two different classifications have been defined, based on whether the HNL contains a flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) co-factor. 

The Corey-Winter reaction provides a useful method for the preparation of olefins that are not accessible by other routes. For instance it may be used for the synthesis of sterically crowded targets, since the initial attack of phosphorus at the sulfur takes place quite distantly from sterically demanding groups that might be present in the substrate molecule. Moreover the required vicinal diols are easily accessible, e.g. by the carbon-carbon bond forming acyloin ester condensation followed by a reductive step. By such a route the twistene 10 has been synthesized ... 

Acyloins were converted to mixtures of stereoisomeric vicinal diols by catalytic hydrogenation over copper chromite [972]. More frequently they were reduced to ketones by zinc (yield 77%) [913, 914], by zinc amalgam (yields 50-60%) [975], by tin (yields 86-92%) [173], or by hydriodic acid by refluxing with 47% hydriodic acid in glacial acetic acid (yields 70-90%) [916], or by treatment with red phosphorus and iodine in carbon disulfide at room temperature (yields 80-90%) [917] Procedure 41, p. 215). Since acyloins are readily accessible by reductive condensation of esters (p. 152) the above reductions provide a very good route to ketones and the best route to macro-cyclic ketones [973]. 

With sodium borohydride and catalytic amounts of titanyl acetoacetonate, a,fi-unsaturated carbonyl compounds give allyl alcohols regioselectively, whereas a-diketones and acyloins are reduced to vicinal diols.325 Enantioselectivities in the reduction of acetophenone, catalysed by 1,3,2-oxazaborolidones, have been examined using the AM1-SCF MO method. The optimized geometries, thermal enthalpies, and entropies of R and S transition states in the stereo-controlling steps of the reduction have been obtained.326... 

The oxidative cleavage of carbon-carbon bonds in vicinal diols [756, 759] is a reaction widely used in saccharide chemistry. Besides its application in this reaction, periodic acid achieves the oxidative coupling [757] or oxidation to quinones [758] of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, the oxidation of methyl groups in aromatic compounds to carbonyl groups [760], the conversion of epoxides into dicarbonyl compounds [761], and the oxidative cleavage of trimethylsilyl ethers of acyloins to carboxylic acids [755]. 

Chiral cyanohydrins serve as the alcohol moieties of several commercial pyre-throid insecticides (see below) [1527]. Hydrolysis or alcoholysis of the nitrile group affords chiral a-hydroxyacids or -esters and Grignard reactions provide acyloins [1528], which in turn can be reduced to give vicinal diols [1529], Alternatively, the cyanohydrins can be subjected to reductive amination to afford chiral ethanol-amines [1530]. a-Aminonitriles as well as aziridines are obtained via the corresponding a-sulfonyloxy nitriles [1531]. 

---