Aldehydes multicomponent cascade reactions

Blechert et developed a multicomponent cascade reaction for the synthesis of indole derivatives as depicted in Scheme 1.8.5.17. The first step of the sequence involves formation of a nitrone derivative starting from phenylhydroxylamines and aldehydes. The resulting nitrones were not isolated but captured by a cyanoallene in a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction followed by hetero-Cope rearrangement, ring-opening and condensation to yield an indole derivative. 

One of the first highly enantioselective examples of multicomponent cascade reactions in orgnocatalysis was developed by Enders et al. [62] in 2006. In this report they describe an asymmetric organocatalytic triple cascade reaction for the construction of tetrasubstituted cyclohexenecarbaldehydes (93) starting from from enals (15), nitroalkenes (28), and enolizable aldehydes (94) (Scheme 10.27). In this work, they did the sequential creation of three bonds by a high enantioselective combination of enamine-iminium-enamine catalysis for a triple cascade reaction. 

A one-pot multicomponent cascade reaction of arylamines, aldehydes, and electron-deficient dienophiles on a soluble support under microwave conditions has been reported to involve a base-catalysed Povarov reaction and a [l,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement leading to 4,10-dihydropyrimido[l,2-fl]benzimidazoles (Scheme 17). ... 

Finally, Han, Huang, and Peng reported a multicomponent cascade reaction for the synthesis of the spirooxindole pyranone scaffold [38]. The reaction started with the addition of aliphatic aldehydes 15 to nitrostyrenes 64 catalyzed by chiral secondary amine catalyst I. Next, the resulting adduct reacted with A-benzyl isatin (54b) by a Henry-hemiacetal formation cascade followed by pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC) oxidation to afford the corresponding spirooxindoles 70 in good yields and stereoselectivities (Scheme 10.24). 

The first organocatalytic sulfa-Michael reaction of enals was reported by j0rgensen in 2005 [68]. In this report aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes reacted with several thiols in good yields and enantioselectivities under catalysis of 28. The products must be reduced immediately due to their fast epimerization at room temperature (Scheme 33.21). In this work, j0rgensen and coworkers also developed several multicomponent cascade reactions with good to excellent results. 

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