Aluminium amides synthesis

During studies on the total synthesis of Aspidosperma type alkaloids, unexpected difficulty was encountered in attempts to reduce the amide carbonyl group of the intermediate 1. Thus, many attempts to reduce 1 with lithium aluminium hydride resulted in reduction of both the amide carbonyl group and the C=C double bond. In an effort to circumvent this problem 1 was reacted with hot phosphorus oxychloride and the intermediate thus obtained treated with sodium borohydride in anhydrous methanol. The product which was isolated, however, was the pentacyclic compound 2, which was obtained in 50% yield. 

Acylation of the C3 position can also be accomplished with acid chlorides, as illustrated in the synthesis of indole 7.34, a drug for the treatment of depression. Reaction of indole 7.31 with oxalyl chloride affords C3-substituted product 7.32 even though the benzene ring is very electron-rich. Conversion to amide 7.33 is followed by reduction with lithium aluminium hydride which removes both carbonyl groups, affording the target indole 7.34. 

Barn DR, Morphy JR, Rees DC, Synthesis of an array of amides by aluminium chloride assisted cleavage of resin-bound esters, Tetrahedron Lett., 37 3213-3216, 1996. 

The best results before organic catalysis were with amides 125 and Lewis acid catalysts based on Al, Ti, and Cu(II) with C2-symmetric ligands. Corey s aluminium complex 127 derived from the diamine whose resolution was described in chapter 22 works well with substituted cyclo-pentadienes 124 and the product 126 was used in prostaglandin synthesis.28 There are three aspects of stereoselectivity in this reaction which diastereotopic face of 124 is attacked (that anti to the CH2OBn group), is the product exo or endo (endo) and which endo product is formed, 126 or its enantiomer Only for the last question is asymmetric catalysis necessary, though Lewis acid catalysis of any kind enhances endo/exo selectivity. 

Conversion of isatins into oxindoles can be achieved by catalytic reduction in acid, or by the Wolff-Kischner process.3-Substituted indoles result from Grignard addition at the ketone carbonyl, followed by lithium aluminium hydride reduction of the residual amide, then dehydration. The reaction of isatin with triphenylphosphine provides an easy synthesis of 3-(triphenylphosphorylidene)oxindole, a Wittig reagent. ... 

The total synthesis of (+ )-dehydroheliotridine (4), a toxic metabolite of the pyrrolizidine alkaloids (e.g. lasiocarpine and heliotrine), has also been described.2 The pyrrole ring was obtained by reaction of l,6-dihydroxy-2,5-dicyanohexa-l,3,5-triene-l,6-dicarboxylic ester (5) with j3-alanine, which afforded the N-substituted pyrrole ester (6), together with the appropriate amide of oxalic acid. Careful hydrolysis of (6) with dilute alkali afforded the related tricarboxylic acid, which was converted, by Dieckmann cyclization, hydrolysis and decarboxylation, into the keto-acid (7). Esterification of (7) with diazomethane, followed by reduction with lithium aluminium hydride, finally afforded ( )-dehydroheliotridine (4), identical, except in optical rotation, with dehydroheliotridine obtained earlier by Culvenor et al.3... 

A common intermediate in the synthesis of benzo[c]phenanthridines is the 2-aryl-l-tetralone, which provides rings A, B, and D of the alkaloid nucleus. In 1973, two independent research groups reported the synthesis of nitidine via the 3,4-dihydro-2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-6,7-methylenedioxy-(2/7)-naphthalone 29 (Scheme 2). The synthesis of this intermediate was arrived at by two different routes. Kametani ei al. (73JHC31) reduced 3-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)proprionate 21 to the corresponding alcohol 22 with lithium aluminium hydride, which was then converted to the chloride 23 with thionyl chloride. After production of the nitrile 24 by reaction with sodium cyanide and subsequent hydrolysis to the carboxylic acid 25, Friedel-Crafts cyclization of the acid chloride 26 afforded the tetralone intermediate 27. Reaction with l-bromo-3,4-dimethoxybenzene 28 in the presence of sodium amide yielded the tetralone intermediate 29 in an overall yield of 4%. 

Disubstituted pyrroles lacking substituents at the 3- and S-positions are often required in porphyrin synthesis, and these can now be prepared from pyrrole itself. Thus, trichloroacetylation or trifluoroacetylation of pyrrole affords the 2-trihaloacetylpyrrole 8, which can be converted into the corresponding esters 9, carboxylic acids, or amides. The amides have been acetylated, or formylated, at the 4-position specifically, and the resulting acyl pyrroles (10) have been reduced to the alkyl pyrroles (11). This general procedure has now been improved by direct Friedel-Crafts formylation of the trichloroacetylpyrrole (8a) with dichloromethyl methyl ether (aluminium chloride) to the diacylpyrroles... 

Louis Bouveault (Nevers, ii February 1864-Paris, 6 September 1909), assistant professor in the Paris Faculty of Sciences, worked out methods for the conversion of nitriles or amides to acids, the synthesis of aromatic aldehydes and acids by the use of aluminium chloride, the synthesis of aldehydes from nitro-olefins, and the reduction of aldehydes, ketones, and esters to alcohols by boiling with alcohol and sodium. ... 

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