Allylic alcohols from allyl sulfoxides

We can illustrate the synthesis of allylic alcohols from allylic sulfoxides with this synthesis of the natural product nuciferal. We mentioned this route on p. 1257 because it makes use of a heterocyclic allyl sulfide to introduce an alkyl substituent regioselectively. The allyl sulfide is oxidized to the sulfoxide, which is converted to the rearranged allylic alcohol with diethylamine as the thiophile. Nuciferal is obtained by oxidizing the allylic alcohol to an aldehyde with manganese dioxide. 

The specific preparation of either phosphine oxide 73 or 80 can easily be carried out from the appropriate allylic alcohol. The reaction is like the one we saw for the preparation of allylic alcohols from allylic sulfoxides but the [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements 76 and 78 run only in this direction with phosphorus.11 It is also the preferred direction with sulfur. Since allylic alcohols 75 and 78 are stable to the allylic rearrangement, each alcohol gives specifically one allylic phosphine oxide 73 or 80 or allylic sulfoxide 41 or 77. This is the theme for most of the rest of the chapter. 

Owing to the reversible nature of the allylic sulfenate/allylic sulfoxide interconversion, the stereochemical outcome of both processes is treated below in an integrated manner. However, before beginning the discussion of this subject it is important to point out that although the allylic sulfoxide-sulfenate rearrangement is reversible, and although the sulfenate ester is usually in low equilibrium concentration with the isomeric sulfoxide, desulfurization of the sulfenate by thiophilic interception using various nucleophiles, such as thiophenoxide or secondary amines, removes it from equilibrium, and provides a useful route to allylic alcohols (equation 11). 

One of the first uses of the allylic sulfoxide-sulfenate interconversion was made by Jones and coworkers64, who reported exclusive suprafacial rearrangement of the allyl group in the steroidal sulfoxide 17 shown in equation 13. Two other examples are shown in equations 1465 and 1566. Evans and coworkers have demonstrated the utility of the suprafacial allylic sulfoxide-sulfenate rearrangement in a new synthesis of the tetracyclic alcohol 24 (equation 16)67, as well as in a synthesis of prostaglandin intermediates as shown in equation 1768. The stereospecific rearrangement of the unstable sulfenate intermediate obtained from the cis diol 25 indicates the suprafacial nature of this process. 

An allylic sulfenate, like 199, is known to be in equilibrium with allylic sulfoxide, like 196, although its concentration is usually low . Various allylic sulfoxides can be prepared by treatment of allylic alcohols with arenesulfenyl chlorides . Evans and coworkers prepared various allylic alcohols by treating the corresponding allylic sulfoxides with trimethyl phosphite. For example, the carbanion from a cycloalkenyl sulfoxide 201 was readily alkylated at the a-position by treatment with alkyl halide. The resulting alkylated derivative 202 was then treated with trimethyl phosphite and 3-substituted cycloalkenol was obtained. Alkylation of acyclic allylic sulfoxide 204 gave... 

Enantiomerically-pure sulfoxides are readily available. Ilan Marek of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology reports (1. Am. Chem. Soc. 125 11776, 2003) that alkyne-derived sulfoxides such as 8 can be used to direct the addition of an allylic organometallic, prepared in situ, to an aldehyde 9. Both the secondary alcohol, from the aldehyde, and the adjacent quaternary center of 10 are formed with >99% stereocontrol. 

The Evans rearrangement can be driven to completion by the addition of a thiophile, such as trimethylphosphite (Scheme 26.19) 440 46 M This strategy allows the chemistry of the allyl phenyl sulfoxide, or other sulfur precursor, to be exploited before the allyl alcohol is unmasked.4 3 471 474 The addition of phenylsulfenyl chloride to an alkene, followed by the elimination of hydrogen chloride and subsequent rearrangement, provides a useful synthesis of allyl alcohols.473 475 The [2,3]-Evans sigmatropic rearrangement is concerted and allows for stereochemical transfer.476 477 The reverse reaction, formation of the allyl sulfoxide, results from the treatment of an allyl alcohol using a base followed by arylsulfenyl chloride to produce the allyl sulfoxide.478 479... 

The product obtained is an allylic alcohol with the hydroxyl group at the other end of the allyl system from where the sulfur started—-a rearrangement has taken place. We have observed the rearrangement in this case because the P(OMe)3 has trapped the rearrangement product but, even without this reagent, allylic sulfoxides are continually and reversibly rearranging into sulfenate esters by the mechanism shown below. 

If our proposal that allylic sulfoxides rearrange reversibly to sulfenate esters is correct, then, if we make the sulfenate ester by another route, it too should rearrange to an allylic sulfoxide—and indeed it does. The sulfenate ester arising from reaction of allylic alcohols with PhSCl (phenylsulfenyl chloride) cannot be isolated instead, the allylic sulfoxide is obtained, usually in very good yield, and this method is often used to make allylic sulfoxides. 

The next example makes more involved use of these [2,3]-sigmatropic allylic sulfoxide-allylic alcohol rearrangements. It comes from the work of Evans (he of the chiral auxiliary) who, in the early 1970s, first demonstrated the synthetic utility of allylic sulfoxides. Here he is using this chemistry to make precursors of the prostaglandins, a family of compounds that modulate hormone activity within the body. 

In the case of steroidal propargylic alcohols the first rearrangement produced a mixture of allenyl sulfoxides, epimeric at the sulfur atom, which reacted with an added nucleophile to produce substituted allylic sulfoxides. Rearrangement of the sulfoxide resulted in the exclusive formation of a-hydroxy derivatives. This reaction sequence has been applied in a synthesis of hydrocortisone acetate74 (Nu = OCH3) from androstene-3,17-dione and in a transformation of mesantrol75 (Nu = malonate) to a spirolactone. 

Like allyl sulfoxides, allylic selenoxides rearrange via a highly ordered five-membered transition state. The arguments, already presented for the allyl sulfoxide rearrangement (Section 4.11.2.1.2.), apply for the rationalization of the high E selectivity of double-bond formation. Table 7 shows some examples7,8,12-15 for the strong preference for E double bonds (see also reference 2, Table V-2, p 148). Trisubstituted (A)-allyl alcohols are also obtained from allyl selenides with a substituent at C-2 of the allylic moiety (entries 8-10)7,8. 

In a recent pubhcation the nitrile (EWG = CN) variant [ 126] of this chemistry was performed in water by applying N,N-diethylaminopropylated sihca gel as heterogeneous catalyst [ 128]. Another variant of this reaction sequence, leading to chiral sulfinylated enones, has been developed by Llera [ 129] employing the enantiomerically pure geminal bis(sulfoxide) 208 (Scheme 54). This bis(sulfoxide) was prepared from (-)-p-toluenesulfinic acid menthyl ester [100], as described by Kunieda [130]. Later this procedure was improved to increase the yield from 35 to 91% [13,131]. Treatment of 208 with enolizable aldehydes or ketones, in the presence of piperidine as a base and thiophile, initiated a reaction cascade involving a condensation step (to 210), a proton shift to allylic sulfoxide 211, and a [2,3]-0-shift followed by a piperidine-mediated desulfuration delivering the alcohols 212 as isomeric mixtures. Oxidation of the latter compounds (one of the R = H) led to enantiomerically pure E-y-oxo vinyl sulfoxides 213. 

Another useful reaction of these Diels-Alder adducts is shown in equation (54). Dihydrothiazine oxide (123) from ( . )-2,4-hexadiene can be opened with a Grignard reagent to allylic sulfoxide (124) which undergoes a stereoselective 2,3-sigmatropic rearrangement via the envelope-like transition state conformation shown, having a quasi-equatorial methyl group to afford sulfenate ester (125). Desulfurization of (125) provides E)-threo smino alcohol derivative (126) in excellent overall yield. If ( ,Z)-2,4-hexadiene is used, the E)-erythro epimer of (126) is formed cleanly. 

Allylic sulfoxides (181) and sulfenates (182) are related by a reversible reaction (equation 56). The equilibrium is shifted towards the sulfoxide. Due to the low barrier associated with this 2,3-shift optically active allylic sulfoxides can racemize at room temperature. Accordingly, the reaction of an alcohol (183) wift PhSCl via sulfenate (182) continues through the 2,3-rearrangement to the sulfoxide. Allylic sulfenates are very seldom isolable. When, conversely, an allylic sulfoxide (181) is heated in the presence of a thiophile (P(OMe)3, R NH, NaSR), the sulfenate (182) is removed from the equilibrium mixture by O—S bond cleavage. The ultimate reaction product obtained from an allylic sulfoxide, therefore, is an allylic alcohol (equation 56). 

Copper(ll) sulfate in dimethyl sulfoxide/water can be similarly employed to prepare allylic alcohols from gcw-dibromo-, gew-dichloro-, monobromo- and monochlorocyclopropanes. ... 

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