Alkenes enantioselective reduction

COOH or NHCOCH3, for example, 2-phenyl-l-butene. Enantioselective reduction of certain alkenes has also been achieved by reducing with baker s yeast. Hydrogenation with Ni2B on borohydride exchange resin (BER) has also been... 

Scheme 13.17 depicts a synthesis based on enantioselective reduction of bicyclo[2.2.2]octane-2,6-dione by Baker s yeast.21 This is an example of desym-metrization (see Part A, Topic 2.2). The unreduced carbonyl group was converted to an alkene by the Shapiro reaction. The alcohol was then reoxidized to a ketone. The enantiomerically pure intermediate was converted to the lactone by Baeyer-Villiger oxidation and an allylic rearrangement. The methyl group was introduced stereoselec-tively from the exo face of the bicyclic lactone by an enolate alkylation in Step C-l. 

A short enantioselective synthesis of (-)-(R,R)-pyrenophorin, a naturally occurring anti-fun-gal 16-membered macrolide dilactone, is prepared from (S)-5-nitropentan-2-ol via the Michael addition and Nef reaction (Scheme 4.23).162 The choice of base is important to get the E-alkene in the Michael addition, for other bases give a mixture of E and Z-alkenes. The requisite chiral (S)-5-nitropentan-2-ol is prepared by enantioselective reduction of 5-nitropentan-2-one with baker s yeast.163... 

Enantioselective hydrogenation of 1,6-enynes using chirally modified cationic rhodium precatalysts enables enantioselective reductive cyclization to afford alky-lidene-substituted carbocycles and heterocycles [27 b, 41, 42]. Good to excellent yields and exceptional levels of asymmetric induction are observed across a structurally diverse set of substrates. For systems that embody 1,2-disubstituted alkenes, competitive /9-hydride elimination en route to products of cycloisomerization is observed. However, related enone-containing substrates cannot engage in /9-hydride elimination, and undergo reductive cyclization in good yield (Table 22.12). 

A more versatile method to use organic polymers in enantioselective catalysis is to employ these as catalytic supports for chiral ligands. This approach has been primarily applied in reactions as asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral alkenes, asymmetric reduction of ketone and 1,2-additions to carbonyl groups. Later work has included additional studies dealing with Lewis acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions, asymmetric epoxidation, and asymmetric dihydroxylation reactions. Enantioselective catalysis using polymer-supported catalysts is covered rather recently in a review by Bergbreiter [257],... 

In spite of the success of asymmetric iridium catalysts for the direct hydrogenation of alkenes, there has been very limited research into the use of alternative hydrogen donors. Carreira and coworkers have reported an enantioselective reduction of nitroalkenes in water using formic acid and the iridium aqua complex 69 [66]. For example, the reduction of nitroalkene 70 led to the formation of the product 71 in good yield and enantioselectivity (Scheme 17). The use of other aryl substrates afforded similar levels of enantioselectivity. 

The reduction of an unsymmetrical ketone creates a new stereo center. Because of the importance of hydroxy groups both in synthesis and in relation to the properties of molecules, including biological activity, there has been a great deal of effort directed toward enantioselective reduction of ketones. One approach is to use chiral borohydride reagents.92 Boranes derived from chiral alkenes can be converted to borohydrides, and there has been much study of the enantioselectivity of these reagents. Several of the reagents are commercially available. 

Enantioselective reduction of certain alkenes has also been achieved by reducing with baker s yeast. ... 

Chiral auxiliaries are capable of controlling the absolute steric course of radical reactions. 8-Phenylmenthyl ester or an amide derived from Oppolzer s camphor sultam can be utilized for enantioselective ring closure to cyclopentane, the chiral auxiliary directing the addition to the alkene. The reductive radical cyclization of 8-phenylmenthyl 2-phenylthio-6-heplenoale at 80 °C gives four isomeric cyclopentane derivatives in an overall yield of 90 % 3. The reaction proceeds with modest cis irons ratio, but a considerably higher RiS selectivity of 80 20. 

Another group of cinchona alkaloids lacks the 6 -mclhoxy group. Cinchonine (7) and its diastereomer cinchonidine (5) are commercially available and have been used as catalysts in the addition of zinc alkyls to aldehydes (Section D. 1.3.1.4.). Cinchonidine and dihydrocin-chonidine (6) were used to modify the surface of platinum catalysts used in the enantioselective reduction of z-oxo esters to a-hydroxy esters (see Section D.2.3.1. for such applications). Dihydrocinchonidine may conveniently be obtained by catalytic reduction of the double bond of cinchonidine, e.g., with nickel and hydrogen7. Cinchonidine also acts as a catalyst in the enantioselective formation of C-S and C-Se bonds by the addition of thiols and selenols to activated alkenes, such as 1-nitroalkenes (Sections D.5. and D.6.). Another application is the enantioselective protonation of kelenes (SectionD.2.I.). 

By combining the utility of Cu hydride catalysis with the ability of C=N containing azaarenes to activate adjacent alkenes toward nucleophilic additions, the enantioselective reductive coupling of alkenyl azaarene 154 with ketone 155 has been developed by Lam (Scheme 11.34). This process is tolerant to a wide variety of azaarenes and ketones, and provides aromatic heterocycles 157 bearing tertiary-alcohol-containing side chains with high levels of diastereo- and enantioselection via a six-membered chair-like transition state 156 [53]. 

Enantioselective reduction of trisubstituted alkenes is also a powerful method for establishing alkylated stereogenic centers. Juan C. Carretero of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid has found (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007,46, 3329) that the enantioselective reduction of unsaturated pyridyl sulfones such as 4 was directed by the sulfone, so the other geometric isomer of 4 gave the opposite enantiomer of 5. The protected hydroxy sulfone 5 is a versatile chiral building block. 

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