Alkaloids Schmidt rearrangements

The dendrobatid alkaloid 251F 213 (Figure 12.4) was isolated from the skin exudates of a Columbian dendrobatid poison frog, Minyobates bombetes [105]. The asymmetric total synthesis of this molecule has been reported by Aube and co-workers [106], The synthesis featured a Noyori-type three-component reaction to access an advanced bicyclopentenone intermediate, and also included a tandem ROM/RCM reaction sequence and a Schmidt rearrangement as key steps. 

Scheme 4.2 Syntheses of homoerythrina alkaloids by domino alkylation/Michael addition. 6b with iodide 7 gave spiro compound 8b in 48% yield, which could be subsequently increased to 80% by using cesium t-butoxide as a base in t-BuOH/THF (tetrahydro-furan) solvent [5]. The ketoesters 8a,b were found to be useful precursors for Homoerythrina alkaloids such as 10. Thus, ( )-3-demethoxy-l,2-dihydrocomosidine 10b was obtained in good yield in four steps form ketoesters 8b, involving a Schmidt rearrangement as the final step (Scheme 4.2) [6].

Treatment of 2,3 Cpoxy-l-amines with Lewis acid induces a rearrangement to aziridinium ions that react efficiently with a nucleophiles to give functionalized hydroxy sulfides or hydroxy amines (Equation 23) <1997SL11>. Under the influence of ethylaluminium chloride, an epoxide tethered to an azide undergoes Lewis acid-assisted cyclization followed by an intramolecular Schmidt reaction and subsequent in situ reduction of the intermediate iminium species upon addition of sodium borohydride (Scheme 8). This protocol was used as a key step in a novel synthesis of indolizidine alkaloids of pharmaceutical interest <20030L583, 2004JOC3093>. 

The total synthesis of dihydrolycorine (38), the sole hydrogenation product of lycorine (6 R1 + R2 = CH2, R3 = R4 = H) and an alkaloid in its own right, has been reported.27 Scheme 3 shows how treatment of the Diels-Alder adduct (33) with methanol gave a mixture of two half-esters which were directly subjected to Friedel-Crafts cyclization to give the indanone ester (34) and a rearrangement product. Attempted Schmidt ring expansion on (34) failed, but a prior reduction-oxidation sequence followed by treatment with sodium azide and hydrolysis produced the desired lactam (35) and an isomeric compound whose structure remains undetermined. Lactam (35) was readily converted into a chain-extended... 

---