Steroids aromatization

A major advance in the art of effecting Birch reductions was the discovery by Wilds and Nelson that lithium reduced aromatic steroids much more efficiently than had hitherto been possible with sodium or potassium. The superiority originally was attributed to the somewhat higher reduction potential of lithium as compared to the other alkali metals. Later work showed that the following explanation is more probable. ... 

Occasionally we have found iron contaminants in aromatic steroids that have not been adequately purified. The methylation of a phenolic steroid with methyl sulfate and alkali is often carried out just prior to a Birch reduction and iron in the tap water precipitates with the steroid during the... 

A remarkable feature of the Birch reduction of estradiol 3-methyl ether derivatives, as well as of other metal-ammonia reductions, is the extreme rapidity of reaction. Sodium and -butyl alcohol, a metal-alcohol combination having a comparatively slow rate of reduction, effects the reduction of estradiol 3-methyl ether to the extent of 96% in 5 minutes at —33° lithium also effects complete reduction under the same conditions as is to be expected. Shorter reaction times were not studied. At —70°, reduction with sodium occurs to the extent of 56 % in 5 minutes, although reduction with lithium is virtually complete (96%) in the same time. (The slow rates of reduction of compounds of the 5-methoxytetralin type is exemplified by 5-methoxy-tetralin itself with sodium and f-butyl alcohol reduction occurs to the extent of only 50% in 6 hours vs. 99+% with lithium.) The iron catalyzed reaction of sodium with alcohols must be very fast since it competes so well with the rapid Birch reduction. One cannot compensate for the presence of iron in a Birch reduction mixture containing sodium by adding additional metal to extend the reaction time. The iron catalyzed sodium-alcohol reaction is sufficiently rapid that the aromatic steroid still remains largely unreduced. 

Aromatic steroids are virtually insoluble in liquid ammonia and a cosolvent must be added to solubilize them or reduction will not occur. Ether, ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, dioxane and tetrahydrofuran have been used and, of these, tetrahydrofuran is the preferred solvent. Although dioxane is often a better solvent for steroids at room temperature, it freezes at 12° and its solvent effectiveness in ammonia is diminished. Tetrahydrofuran is infinitely miscible with liquid ammonia, but the addition of lithium to a 1 1 mixture causes the separation of two liquid phases, one blue and one colorless, together with the separation of a lithium-ammonia bronze phase. Thus tetrahydrofuran and lithium depress the solubilities of each other in ammonia. A tetrahydrofuran-ammonia mixture containing much over 50 % of tetrahydrofuran does not become blue when lithium is added. In general, a 1 1 ratio of ammonia to organic solvents represents a reasonable compromise between maximum solubility of steroid and dissolution of the metal with ionization. 

Many aromatic steroids submitted to the Birch reduction contain hydroxyl groups which are deprotonated to the corresponding alkoxides during the reduction, particularly if a tertiary alcohol is used as the proton donoi. The steroidal alkoxides and the one derived from the proton donor often precipitate and cause foaming of the reaction mixture, as was noted by Wilds and Nelson. These alkoxides can be kept in solution by adding an excess of the proton donor alcohol to the mixture the alcohol also assists in dissolving the starting hydroxylic steroid. A particularly useful reaction medium for hydroxylic steroids contains ammonia, tetrahydrofuran and -butyl alcohol in the volume ratio of 2 1 (Procedure 2, section V). This mixture... 

For large scale laboratory reductions ca. 100 g of an aromatic steroid) the dry ice reflux condenser may be omitted, but the reaction flask should be... 

The hydrogenation of ring A aromatic steroids over ruthenium occurs, almost invariably, from the a side and all substituents on the original aromatic ring are cis in the resulting cyclohexane. Estrone (62) is hydrogenated over ruthenium to 5a,10a-estrane-3/3,17j6-diol (63) in 85-90% yield. 

Hydrogenation of monoenes, 123 Hydrogenation of ring A aromatic steroids, 138... 

In view of our results obtained in reactions of the tetrahalogeno-benzynes with aromatic compounds we carried out a reaction of tetra-fluorobenzyne with the A-ring aromatic steroid 3,l7,fl-dimethoxy-oestra-l(10),2,4-triene (119) 154>. As we expected the initially formed enol-ethers were very rapidly hydrolysed and the adducts were isolated as the ketones (120) and (121). The mass spectra of the compounds (120) and (121) did not show molecular ion peaks and as anticipated the ketones were rapidly converted into the naphthalenes (122) and (123) photo-chemically. 

The Birch-type electrochemical reduction (460) (461) has been shown to proceed through the action of tetra-butylammonium amalgam in the steps (460)— (462)— (463), in contrast to a direct electron transfer from the electrode to the aromatics (Scheme 158) [548]. The preparative-scale reduction of anisole, of l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-6-methoxynaphthalene, and several aromatic steroids is performed in an H20-Bu4N0H-(Hg) system. The unique aspect of the reduction is the proposed formation of a tetrabutylammo-nium amalgam complex, BU4N (Hg) (465)... 

Somewhat unusual examples, which illustrate the usefulness of cycloadditions in the synthesis of polycyclic compounds, are the controlled synthesis of an unsymmetrically substituted aromatic compound (131 from very simple commercially available compounds (Scheme 6.9), and the one-step thermal cyclisation of compound J6 to the aromatic steroid 14 (Scheme 6.10). 

III. The Birch Reduction of Aromatic Steroids /II Mechanism of the reduction of aromatic compounds / 12 Factors influencing the rate of reduction / 14 Protonation of reduction intermediates / 17... 

Based on that methodology, Oppolzer [551] and Nicolaou [552] devised procedures for the total synthesis of aromatic steroids as (+)-estradiol and ( )-estra-l,3,5(10)-triene-17-one. In this latter case, experimental conditions for the pyrolytic step are given. 

Intermolecular cyclopropanation of diazoketones is an effective method in organic synthesis. Wenkert and coworkers have applied this methodology to the synthesis of a substantial number of cyclopropane adducts 2868, 2969 and 307° which are synthetic intermediates in the preparation of natural products (equations 41—43). Copper catalysts were chosen for these transformations. Another interesting application of intermolecular cyclopropanation is to be found in Daniewski s total synthesis of an aromatic steroid. Palladium(II) acetate catalysed decomposition of 4-bromo-l-diazo-2-butanone in the presence of m-methoxystyrene was used to give the cyclopropyl ketone 31 which was a key intermediate in the total synthesis (equation 44)71. 

Removable cation-stabilizing auxiliaries have been investigated for polyene cyclizations. For example, a silyl-assisted carbocation cyclization has been used in an efficient total synthesis of lanosterol. Other conditions for the cyclization of polyenes and of ene-ynes to steroids have been investigated. Oxidative free-radical cyclizations of polyenes produce steroid nuclei with exquisite stereocontrol Besides the aforementioned A-ring aromatic steroids and contraceptive agents, partial synthesis from steroid raw materials has also accounted for the vast majority of industrial-scale steroid synthesis. 

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