Aziridines asymmetric synthesis

The Darzens condensation reaction has been used with a wide variety of enolate equivalents that have been covered elsewhere. A recent application of this important reaction was appljed toward the asymmetric synthesis of aziridine phosphonates by Davis and coworkers.In this application, a THF solution of sulfinimine 34 (0.37 mmol, >98% ee) and iodophosphonate 35 (0.74 mmol) was treated with LiHMDS (0.74 mmol) at -78 °C to give aziridine 36 in 75% yield. Treatment of 36 with MeMgBr removed the sulfinyl group to provide aziridine 37 in 72% yield. 

Asymmetric Synthesis of Epoxides and Aziridines from Aldehydes and I mines... 

This is by far the most versatile route to the synthesis of ester-substituted aziridines, especially as the benzhydryl group can easily be cleaved by hydrogenolysis. Wulff has applied this methodology to a short asymmetric synthesis of the antibiotic (-)-chloramphenicol in four steps from p-nitrobenzaldehyde (Scheme 1.34) [61]. In this case it was found that treatment of the aziridine 111 with excess dichloroacetic acid gave the hydroxy acetamide directly, so no separate deprotection step was required. 

Table 1.15 Chiral guanidylium ylides for asymmetric synthesis of aziridines.

Of course, the key limitation of the ylide-mediated methods discussed so far is the use of stoichiometric amounts of the chiral reagent. Building on their success with catalytic asymmetric ylide-mediated epoxidation (see Section 1.2.1.2), Aggarwal and co-workers have reported an aza version that provides a highly efficient catalytic asymmetric synthesis of trans-aziridines from imines and diazo compounds or the corresponding tosylhydrazone salts (Scheme 1.43) [68-70]. 

The chemistry of aziridine-2-carboxylates and phosphonates has been discussed in part in several reviews covering the literature through 1999 [1-3], This chapter is intended to give an overview of asymmetric syntheses using chiral nonracemic aziridine-2-carboxylates and -phosphonates with particular emphasis on their applications as chiral building blocks in asymmetric synthesis since 2000. Some overlap with earlier reviews is necessary for the sake of continuity. 

An aza-Darzens reaction, involving the addition of chloromethylphosphonate anions to enantiopure N-sulfinimines, has also been developed by Davis and others for the asymmetric synthesis of aziridine-2-phosphonates [81-84], As an example, treatment of the lithium anion generated from dimethyl chloromethylphos-phonate (93 Scheme 3.30) with N-sulfmimine (Ss)-92 gave the a-chloro-P-amino phosphonate 94, which could be isolated in 51% yield. Cyclization of 94 with n-BuLi gave cis-N-sulfmylaziridine-2-phosphonate 95 in 82% yield [81],... 

More recently, an improved method for the asymmetric synthesis of aziridine-... 

Of course, new variants of the (N + C=C) approach continue to be reported. Muller and coworkers, who recently reviewed the field of rhodium(II)-catalyzed aziridinations with [N-(p-nitrobenzenesulfonyl)imino]phenyliodinane <96JP0341>, have explored the application of this technology to asymmetric synthesis. Thus, treatment of c/s-p-methylstyrene (141) with PhI=NNs and Pirrung s catalyst [Rh2 (-)(R)-bnp 4] in methylene chloride medium afforded the corresponding aziridine (142) in 75% yield and 73% ee <96TET1543>. 

The asymmetric oxidation of organic compounds, especially the epoxidation, dihydroxylation, aminohydroxylation, aziridination, and related reactions have been extensively studied and found widespread applications in the asymmetric synthesis of many important compounds. Like many other asymmetric reactions discussed in other chapters of this book, oxidation systems have been developed and extended steadily over the years in order to attain high stereoselectivity. This chapter on oxidation is organized into several key topics. The first section covers the formation of epoxides from allylic alcohols or their derivatives and the corresponding ring-opening reactions of the thus formed 2,3-epoxy alcohols. The second part deals with dihydroxylation reactions, which can provide diols from olefins. The third section delineates the recently discovered aminohydroxylation of olefins. The fourth topic involves the oxidation of unfunc-tionalized olefins. The chapter ends with a discussion of the oxidation of eno-lates and asymmetric aziridination reactions. 

At that time, as now, the enantiomers of many chiral amines were obtained as natural products or by synthesis from naturally occurring amines, a-amino acids and alkaloids, while others were only prepared by introduction of an amino group by appropriate reactions into substances from the chiral pool carbohydrates, hydroxy acids, terpenes and alkaloids. In this connection, a recent review10 outlines the preparation of chiral aziridines from enantiomerically pure starting materials from natural or synthetic sources and the use of these aziridines in stereoselective transformations. Another report11 gives the use of the enantiomers of the a-amino acid esters for the asymmetric synthesis of nitrogen heterocyclic compounds. 

In a similar approach, Garner et al. (78) made use of silicon-based tethers between ylide and dipolarophile during their program of research into the application of azomethine ylides in the total asymmetric synthesis of complex natural products. In order to form advanced synthetic intermediates of type 248 during the asymmetric synthesis of bioxalomycins (249), an intramolecular azomethine ylide reaction from aziridine ylide precursors was deemed the best strategy (Scheme 3.84). Under photochemically induced ylide formation and subsequent cycloaddition, the desired endo-re products 250 were formed exclusively. However, due to unacceptably low synthetic yields, this approach was abandoned in favor of a longer tether (Scheme 3.85). 

The synthesis of substituted cysteines can be accomplished via Michael addition reactions,]67124-126] by nucleophilic displacement,]127] from racemic thiazolines,]128] via aziridine ring opening,]129 and by asymmetric synthesis using a chiral auxiliary.]130] The details for some of these methods are described. 

In general, the method of enzymatic cyanohydrin synthesis promises to be of considerable value in asymmetric synthesis because of the synthetic potential offered by the rich chemistry of enantiomerically pure cyanohydrins, including their stereoselective conversion into other classes of compounds such as a-hydroxy carboxylic acids or respective esters, w c-diols, / -aminoalcohols, aziridins, a-azido(amino/fluoro)nitriles, and acyloins [501, 516]. 

There are many routes available for the synthesis of aziridine 2-carboxylic acids, however there are few reactions which yield enantiomerically pure products. These compounds (especially those with cis-stereochemistry) are especially useful for the synthesis of bioactive molecules556. There is thus significant effort in this area of synthesis557,558, but most methods are lengthy multistep procedures. Recently, a simple, one-pot procedure, utilizing imines, has been developed for the asymmetric synthesis of c/s-N-substituted aziridine-2-carboxylic acids via a Darzens-type reaction (equation 154)559. 

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