Aldehydes aldol-type reactions

Chiral 2-oxazolidones are useful recyclable auxiliaries for carboxylic acids in highly enantioselective aldol type reactions via the boron enolates derived from N-propionyl-2-oxazolidones (D.A. Evans, 1981). Two reagents exhibiting opposite enantioselectivity ate prepared from (S)-valinol and from (lS,2R)-norephedrine by cyclization with COClj or diethyl carbonate and subsequent lithiation and acylation with propionyl chloride at — 78°C. En-olization with dibutylboryl triflate forms the (Z)-enolates (>99% Z) which react with aldehydes at low temperature. The pure (2S,3R) and (2R,3S) acids or methyl esters are isolated in a 70% yield after mild solvolysis. 

Formaldehyde condenses with itself in an aldol-type reaction to yield lower hydroxy aldehydes, hydroxy ketones, and other hydroxy compounds the reaction is autocatalytic and is favored by alkaline conditions. Condensation with various compounds gives methylol (—CH2OH) and methylene (=CH2) derivatives. The former are usually produced under alkaline or neutral conditions, the latter under acidic conditions or in the vapor phase. In the presence of alkahes, aldehydes and ketones containing a-hydrogen atoms undergo aldol reactions with formaldehyde to form mono- and polymethylol derivatives. Acetaldehyde and 4 moles of formaldehyde give pentaerythritol (PE) ... 

Reaction With Carbonyl Compounds. Primary and secondary nitroparaffins undergo aldol-type reactions with a variety of aldehydes and ketones to give nitro alcohols (11). Those derived from the lower nitroparaffins and formaldehyde are available commercially (see Nitro alcohols). Nitro alcohols can be reduced to the corresponding amino alcohols (see Alkanolamines). 

Besides the aldol reaction in the true sense, there are several other analogous reactions, where some enolate species adds to a carbonyl compound. Such reactions are often called aldol-type reactions the term aldol reaction is reserved for the reaction of aldehydes and ketones. 

Aldol-Type Reactions between Carboxylic Esters or Amides and Aldehydes or Ketones... 

In Section 3.5 on alkene isomerization, it was mentioned that Li and co-workers reported a RuCl2(PPh3)3-catalyzed shuffling of functional groups of allylic alcohols in water (Eq. 3.35).140 Since the reaction proceeds through an enol intermediate, allyl alcohols can thus be considered as enol equivalents.203 This has been developed into an aldol-type reaction by reacting allyl alcohols with aldehyde (Scheme 3.11).204 The presence of In(OAc)3 promoted the aldol reaction with a-vinylbenzyl alcohol and aldehyde.205... 

Nagao, Y., Hagiwara, Y., Kumagai, T., Ochiai, M., Inoue, T., Hashimoto, K., and Fujita, E. (1986). New C4-chiral l,2-thiazolidine-2-thiones Excellent chiral auxiliaries for highly diastereocontrolled aldol-type reactions of acetic acid and a,b-unsaturated aldehydes. J. Org. Chem. 51, 2391-2393. 

A similar method has been described by Badia and co-workers who used chiral amides derived from pseudoephe-drine.139 Moreover, a zirconium-mediated Claisen-aldol tandem reaction of an a,cr-dialkylated ester with several aldehydes has been reported (Scheme 39).140 After the initial Claisen condensation, zirconium enolate intermediate 92 reacts with various types of aldehydes through aldol-type reaction and subsequent lactonization, providing the corresponding pyran-2,4-diones. 

Chiral bis-phosphine acylplatinum complex 210 with a strong acid such as TfOH serves as an effective enantio-selective catalyst for aldol-type reactions of aldehydes with ketene silyl acetals (Equation (127)).486 The presence of water and oxygen in the catalyst preparation step is required to obtain the highly enantioselective catalyst. The intermediacy of a C-bound platinum enolate was suggested by IR and 31P NMR spectroscopies. 

Aldol-type reaction of zinc esters. This titanium reagent promotes condensation of (ethoxycarbonylalkyl)iodozinc compounds (13, 220) with aldehydes or ketones to provide hydroxy esters and/or lactones. The active reagent may be (ethoxycarbonyl)alkyltriisopropoxytitanium. 

A study of the kinetics and products of the thermolysis of a series of diaryl-phosphinic azides has been reported.119 Diethyl 1-diazomethylphosphonates undergo an aldol-type reaction with aldehydes to give l-diazo-2-hydroxyalkylphosphonates (152).120 Acidification of the diazophosphonates (153) possessing a chiral phosphorus centre yields mixtures of diastereoisomers (154) and epimers at C. For given R1 and R2, the reaction becomes increasingly stereoselective for X= OAc < Cl < OTs. It may be argued that protonation of (153) will yield a mixture of diastereoisomeric di-... 

Nucleophilic addition of an enolate anion from a carboxylic acid derivative onto an aldehyde or ketone is simply an aldol-type reaction (see Section 10.3). 

The fragment attached to pyridoxal will be the same in both cases, and after hydrolysis it is released as the amino acid glycine. In case this seems a bit complicated, consider the reverse reaction, which would be attack of an electron-rich system on to the carbonyl group of an aldehyde, i.e. an aldol reaction. Therefore, what we are seeing here is merely a reverse aldol-type reaction (see Section 10.3). 

Aldol and Related Condensations As an elegant extension of the PTC-alkylation reaction, quaternary ammonium catalysts have been efficiently utilized in asymmetric aldol (Scheme 11.17a)" and nitroaldol reactions (Scheme ll.lTb) for the constmction of optically active p-hydroxy-a-amino acids. In most cases, Mukaiyama-aldol-type reactions were performed, in which the coupling of sUyl enol ethers with aldehydes was catalyzed by chiral ammonium fluoride salts, thus avoiding the need of additional bases, and allowing the reaction to be performed under homogeneous conditions. " It is important to note that salts derived from cinchona alkaloids provided preferentially iyw-diastereomers, while Maruoka s catalysts afforded awh-diastereomers. 

By 1989 Mukaiyama had already explored the behaviour of phosphonium salts as Lewis acid catalysts. It was possible to show that the aldol-type reaction of aldehydes or acetals with several nucleophiles and the Michael reaction of a,j3-unsatu-rated ketones or acetals with silyl nucleophiles gave the products in good yields with a phosphonium salt catalyst [116]. In addition, the same group applied bisphosphonium salts as shown in Scheme 45 in the synthesis of ]3-aminoesters [117]. High yields up to 98% were obtained in the reaction of A-benzylideneaniline and the ketene silyl acetal of methyl isobutyrate. Various analogues of the reaction parteers gave similar results. The bisphosphonium salt was found to be superior to Lewis acids like TiCl and SnCl, which are deactivated by the resulting amines. 

The synthesis pathway of quinolizidine alkaloids is based on lysine conversion by enzymatic activity to cadaverine in exactly the same way as in the case of piperidine alkaloids. Certainly, in the relatively rich literature which attempts to explain quinolizidine alkaloid synthesis °, there are different experimental variants of this conversion. According to new experimental data, the conversion is achieved by coenzyme PLP (pyridoxal phosphate) activity, when the lysine is CO2 reduced. From cadeverine, via the activity of the diamine oxidase, Schiff base formation and four minor reactions (Aldol-type reaction, hydrolysis of imine to aldehyde/amine, oxidative reaction and again Schiff base formation), the pathway is divided into two directions. The subway synthesizes (—)-lupinine by two reductive steps, and the main synthesis stream goes via the Schiff base formation and coupling to the compound substrate, from which again the synthetic pathway divides to form (+)-lupanine synthesis and (—)-sparteine synthesis. From (—)-sparteine, the route by conversion to (+)-cytisine synthesis is open (Figure 51). Cytisine is an alkaloid with the pyridone nucleus. 

From the illustrated (S)-valinol imide (175), the derived dibutylboryl enolates undergo condensation with a broad range of aldehydes in greater than 99% asymmetric induction for both newly formed asymmetric centers 180). Evans et al. have shown that the propionyl sidely chain in (175) may be replaced by other alkanoyl substituents without loss of stereoselectivity in the aldol type reaction 180). 

Interestingly, another Mg(II)-mediated aldol-type reaction has been investigated by using MgBr2-Et3N with bislactim ethers and aliphatic aldehydes. The aldol products are converted in a-substituted serines (equation 60, Table 6). 

TABLE 6. Diastereoselective aldol-type reaction of bislactim ether with aldehydes... 

Other chiral magnesium enolates derived from amides are known to react with aldehydes. For example, the aldol-type reaction of magnesium enolate of —)-trans-2-N,N-diethylacetamide-l,3-dithiolanes-5 -oxide with isobutyraldehyde affords a single diastere-omer in 82%. The relative stereochemistry of the adduct originates from a rigid transition state 87 where the oxygen atoms of the enolate and the aldehyde are coordinated to the magnesium atom. ... 

The scope of the present article comprises syntheses of sugar-type compounds containing four or more carbon atoms, an aldehyde or a ketone group, and a minimum of two hydroxyl groups (or their equivalents, such as amino or thiol groups) at least one of them being bound to a center of chirality. The subject of aldol-type reactions of formaldehyde and two- or three-carbon atom hydroxy aldehydes and hydroxy ketones has been omitted a comprehensive discussion of this topic, including a historical survey, has appeared in this Series.5... 

The aldol-type reaction of a cyclic enol ester, 5-methyl-2(3//)-furanone (4b), was carried out with three kinds of catalytic systems PdCl2 (PhCN)2-SnCl2, Ni(Cod)2/Ph3P-Zn, and Pd(OAc)2/PPh3-Zn. In the presence of the first catalyst, aromatic aldehydes condense with 4b to give ds-)3-acetyl-y-aryl-y-butyrolactones (47), but alkanals are mainly con-... 

SCHEME 117. Asymmetric aldol-type reaction between aldehydes and a-isocyano-phosphonates. 

Enantioselective condensation of aldehydes and enol silyl ethers is promoted by addition of chiral Lewis acids. Through coordination of aldehyde oxygen to the Lewis acids containing an Al, Eu, or Rh atom (286), the prochiral substrates are endowed with high electrophilicity and chiral environments. Although the optical yields in the early works remained poor to moderate, the use of a chiral (acyloxy)borane complex as catalyst allowed the erythro-selective condensation with high enan-tioselectivity (Scheme 119) (287). This aldol-type reaction may proceed via an extended acyclic transition state rather than a six-membered pericyclic structure (288). Not only ketone enolates but ester enolates... 

Scheme 120 illustrates aldol-type reaction of aldehydes and silyl ene-thiolates catalyzed by 20 mol % of Sn(II) triflate-chiral diamine combined system in propionitrile or dichloromethane (291). A variety of aldehydes such as aliphatic, ,/3-unsaturated, and aromatic aldehydes are usable. The reaction is facilitated by high affinity of the Sn atom to sulfur atoms and the weak Si—S bond. A binaphthol-containing Ti oxo... 

Aldol-type reactions comprise one of the most important classes of synthetic reactions. Although direct enantioselective condensation of aldehydes and unmodified ketones is not easy (280), it is highly desirable. A partly successful example is given in Scheme 115 (281). 

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