Alcohols, 2-nitro Henry reaction

In general, the Henry reaction proceeds in a non-selective way to give a mixture of anti (erythro) and syn (threo) isomers. Ab initio calculations on the Henry reaction suggest that free nitronate anions (not influenced by cations) react with aldehydes via transition states in which the nitro and carbonyl dipoles are antiperiplanar to each other. This kind of reaction yields anti-nitro alcohols. The Henry reaction between lithium nitronates and aldehydes is predicted to occur via cyclic transition states yielding syn-nitro alcohols as major products (Eq. 3.64).108... 

The nitro-dldolredcdon between nitrodlkdnes and carbonyl compounds to yieldfi-nitro alcohols was discovered in 1895 by Henry. Since dien, diis reaction has been used extensively in many important syndieses. In view of its significance, diere are several reviews on die Henry reaction." These reviews cover syndiesis of fi-nitro alcohols and dieir applications in organic synthesis. The most comprehensive review is Ref 3, which summarizes the literature before 1970. More recent reviews are Refs. 4 and 5, which summarize literatures on the Henry reaction published until 1990. 

The synthedc ndlity of the Henry reaction is shovm in Scheme 3.1, where fi-nitro alcohols are converted into fi-amino alcohols, amino sugars, ketones and other important compounds. 

The basc-eatalyzcd addition of nilroalkancs to carbonyl compounds is a reversible reaction and proceeds under thermodynamic control. Thus low (R, R )/(R, S ) selectivities arc observed in the classical Henry reaction which leads to the silylated x-nitro alcohols 2. 

In general, the Henry reaction gives a mixture of diastereomers and enantiomers. The lack of selectivity is due to the reversibility of the reaction and the easy epimerization at the nitro-substituted carbon atom. Existing reviews have hardly mentioned the stereochemistry of the Henry reaction. Recently, Shibasaki has found that the modification of the Henry reaction can control the stereochemistry to give (3-nitro alcohols with high diastereo- and enantio-selectivity.6 In Section 3.3, the progress of the stereoselective Henry reaction and its application to biologically active compounds are discussed. 

The 3-nitro alcohols are generally obtained in good yield by the reaction of aldehydes with nitroalkanes in the presence of a catalytic amount of base. When aryl aldehydes are used, the (3-nitro alcohols formed may undergo elimination of water to give aryl nitroalkenes. Such side reactions are not always disadvantageous, for nitroalkenes are sometimes the ultimate target for the Henry reaction. The choice of reaction conditions is important to stop the reaction at the stage of 3-nitro alcohols in aromatic cases. 

Table 3.1. Preparation of p-nitro alcohol by the Henry reaction...

A more effective catalyst for the Henry reaction is a polymer-supported base such as amberlyst A-21. Various P-nitro alcohols can he obtained with the help of amberlyst with or without solvent (Eq. 3.14).25 A recent report claims that amberlite IRA-420 (OH-form) or DOWEX-1 (OH-form) is more effective for the Henry reaction than amberlyst A-21.26 Poly-... 

Nitro alcohols prepared by the Henry reaction are important precursors for (3-amino alcohols. The reduction of the nitro group to the amino function is commonly carried out by hydrogenation in the presence of Raney Ni in EtOH or Pd/C in THF and MeOH (see Section 4.2). The conversion into 3-amino alcohols is also described in the Sections 3.2.5 and 3.3. 

P-Nitro alcohols can be hydrogenated to the corresponding amino alcohols with retention of configuration the stereoselective Henry reaction is a useful tool in the elaboration of pharmacologically important P-amino alcohol derivatives including chloramphenicol, ephedrine, norephedrine, and others. Some important P-amino alcohols are listed in Scheme 3.11.107... 

They react with a wide range of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes in the presence of catalytic amounts of tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF) to give the trialkylsilyl ethers of P-nitro alcohols with high anti-selectivity (98%). The diastereoselective Henry reaction is summarized in Table 3.2. The products are reduced to P-amino alcohols using Raney Ni-H2 with retention of the configuration of P-nitro alcohols (Scheme 3.12). 

Allylic nitro compounds undergo [2.3]sigmatropic rearrangement to afford rearranged alcohols, as shown in Eq. 7.4346 and Eq. 7.44 47 Because the allylic nitro compounds used in these reactions are readily prepared either by the Henry reaction or the Michael addition, these reactions may be useful in organic synthesis. 

The nucleophilic addition of nitroalkane to carbonyl groups is known as the Henry reaction. The products of the Henry reaction are 2-nitroalkanols,115 which are useful intermediates for nitroalkenes, 2-amino alcohols, and 2-nitro-ketones. However, this does not always give high yields because of the possible O-alkylation in preference to C-alkylation during the Henry reaction. 

The classical Henry reaction conditions (base catalyzed addition) have some drawbacks sometimes the nitro alcohols are obtained in low yields and diastereoselectivities are not always high. To improve these results, a number of modifications were introduced. One of them is the Seebach s silyl nitronate method,25 that involves a reaction between an aldehyde with a silyl nitronate prepared by metalation of the corresponding nitro alkane with LDA, followed by reaction of the resulting nitronate with tert-butyldimethylsilyl chloride.26... 

The Henry reaction of nitro sugars and sugar aldehydes is a powerful tool for the formation of C-glycosydic bonds. A recent example is the preparation of disaccharide precursor 60 stated in Scheme 21.45 It involves a Henry reaction of nitro sugar 58 and aldehyde 59 in acetonitrile in the presence of catalytic potassium fluoride, to give nitro alcohol 60, a precursor of the corresponding C-disaccharide. 

For example, the 0,C-trisaccharide 153 was obtained by a Henry reaction of nitro disaccharide 151 and sugar aldehyde 150 followed by the dehydration of (3-nitro alcohol 152 and reduction of the resulting nitroolefin, to give nitro sugar 153. Finally, a radical elimination of the nitro group afforded the target 154 (Scheme 47).105... 

In this section the synthesis of fluoroalkyl (Section 15.1.4.1.3), a,a-difluoroalkyl (Section 15.1.4.2.3), and trifluoromethyl- and perfluoroalkyl ketones are discussed collectively. The second most widely used method for synthesizing peptide fluoromethyl ketones is the Henry nitro-aldol condensation reaction, which involves the use of (3-nitro alcohols to build the fluoromethyl ketones. As with the modified Dakin-West procedure, the Henry reaction has also been used to synthesize mono-, di-, tri-, and extended fluoromethyl ketones, making it another extremely versatile synthetic method.19 12 19 27 29 33 341 However, similar to the Dakin-West procedure, the products of the Henry reaction are not chiral, since an achiral carbanion is involved in the crucial carbon bond forming step. 

The Henry reaction (addition of a nitroalkane to a carbonyl) is synthetically very useful, as the nitro group of the nitro alcohol product provides many routes to a variety of functional groups. An ah initio study of the stereochemical outcomes of the reaction yields the following 73... 

The asymmetric catalytic nitroaldol reaction, also known as the asymmetric Henry reaction, is another example of an aldol-related synthesis of high general interest. In this reaction nitromethane (or a related nitroalkane) reacts in the presence of a chiral catalyst with an aldehyde, forming optically active / -nitro alcohols [122], The / -nitro alcohols are valuable intermediates in the synthesis of a broad variety of chiral building blocks, e.g. / -amino alcohols. A highly efficient asymmetric catalytic nitroaldol reaction has been developed by the Shibasaki group, who used multifunctional lanthanoid-based complexes as chiral catalysts [122-125],... 

Nitro aldol reaction (Henry reaction1). The reaction of the anion (BuLi) of primary nitroalkanes with aromatic aldehydes to form (3-nitro alcohols is anti-selective if carried out in the presence of this titanium reagent (1 equiv.).2... 

Aliphatic nitro compounds are highly versatile building blocks in organic synthesis7 8 (see Scheme 1). For example, the nitroaldol addition (Henry reaction)9 leads to the formation of 1,2-nitro alcohols, 2, which are easily transformed into 1,2-amino alcohols, 3, by reduction, and into a-hydroxycarbonyl compounds, 4, by hydrolysis10 (Nef reaction). The former process, mostly using nitromethane, has been widely employed in carbohydrate chemistry.11... 

Catalytic enantioselective Henry reactions are known, such as the use of a chiral copper catalyst or a zinc catalyst. The Henry reaction of nitro-methane an a chiral aldehyde under high pressure gives the p-nitro alcohol with excellent enantioselectivity. ... 

All the steps in the Henry reaction are completely reversible. The first step of the mechanism is the deprotonation of the nitroalkane by the base at the a-position to form the corresponding resonance stabilized anion. Next, an aldol reaction (C-alkylation of the nitroalkane) takes place with the carbonyl compound to form diastereomeric P-nitro alkoxides. Finally the P-nitro alkoxides are protonated to give the expected p-nitro alcohols. 

The first total synthesis of the 14-membered para ansa cyclopeptide alkaloid (-)-nummularine F was accomplished in the laboratory of M.M. Joullie. The A/3 nitrogen atom was introduced by using the Henry reaction between the 4-formylphenoxy group and the anion of nitromethane, followed by reduction of the nitro group to the corresponding amine. The epimeric benzyl alcohols did not pose a problem since they were dehydrated at the end of the synthetic sequence to give the C1-C2 double bond. 

Henry reaction Aldol condensation between nitroalkanes and carbonyl compounds to form 3-nitro alcohols. 202... 

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