2/7-Azirine esters

A similar but asymmetric variant of the reaction, involving the radical addition of alkyl iodides and trialkylboranes to chiral azirine esters derived from 8-phenyl-menthol and camphorsultam, in the presence of a Cu(i) catalyst, has subsequently been reported [64]. The diastereoselectivity of the addition is variable (0-92% de)... 

There has been some investigation of auxiliary-controlled cycloadditions of azir-ines. Thus, camphor-derived azirine esters undergo cycloaddition with dienes, with poor diastereoselectivity [70]. The same azirines were also observed to react unselectively with phenylmagnesium bromide. Better selectivities were obtained when Lewis acids were used in the corresponding cycloaddition reactions of 8-phe-nylmenthyl esters of azirine 2-carboxylates (Scheme 4.48) [71]. The same report also describes the use of asymmetric Lewis acids in similar cycloadditions, but mediocre ees were observed. 

A highly remarkable and entirely unexpected conversion of aziridine esters 21 into azirine esters 22 was accomplished by subjecting the aziridine to a Swern oxidation (Scheme 11). 

The regiochemistry of this elimination reaction resembles that observed by Davis et al. (see Scheme 9) [23]. The special nature of the bonds in three-mem-bered rings is probably responsible for this exclusive regiochemistry. It is of interest to note that 3,3-dimethylaziridine-2-carboxylic ester indeed leads to the corresponding 3H-azirine ester upon Swern oxidation here there is, of course, no choice. 

Interestingly, certain chiral tertiary bases, viz., the Cinchona alkaloids, result in an asymmetric 1,3-elimination to give enantiomerically enriched azirine esters 29 (Scheme 15). The best results were obtained with quinidine in toluene as the solvent at a rather high dilution (2 mg mL ) at 0 °C. In an alcoholic solvent no asymmetric conversion was observed. It is of importance to note that the pseudoenantiomers of the alkaloid bases gave opposite antipodes of the azirine ester, whereby quinidine leads to the predominant formation of the (k)-enan-tiomer (ee = -80%). To explain this asymmetric Neber reaction, it is suggested... 

Reaction of azirine ester 66 with acyl halides led essentially to two types of products, viz., the addition products 67 and halovinylamino esters 68 as depicted in Scheme 50. 

The formation of product 68 from 67 can readily be explained as depicted in Scheme 50. For R = H, R = Ph, this reaction was also performed with enantiomerically enriched azirine ester in product 68 this chirality was retained [27b, 70]. 

Alkoxy-isoxazoles undergo ring contraction with iron(II) chloride, producing azirine esters. ... 

Interestingly, both cis and trans aziridine isomers gave the same azirine ester 68, surprising as the C2 proton is more acidic than the C3 proton and would also result in conjugation with the ester functionality. The intermediate 69 is shown for the cis aziridine. R groups included alkyl chains and phenyl substituents and yields varied from 54% to 86% with higher yields obtained via the trans aziridines. 

In a similar way, irradiation converts many simpler pyrazoles into imidazoles, phenylisothiazoles and methylisothiazoles partially into the corresponding thiazoles, and 3,5-diarylisoxazoles converted into 2,5-disubstituted oxazoles. " 3-Alkoxyisoxazoles undergo an extraordinary ring contraction with iron(II) chloride, producing azirine esters... 

The main example of a category I indole synthesis is the Hemetsberger procedure for preparation of indole-2-carboxylate esters from ot-azidocinna-mates[l]. The procedure involves condensation of an aromatic aldehyde with an azidoacetate ester, followed by thermolysis of the resulting a-azidocinna-mate. The conditions used for the base-catalysed condensation are critical since the azidoacetate enolate can decompose by elimination of nitrogen. Conditions developed by Moody usually give good yields[2]. This involves slow addition of the aldehyde and 3-5 equiv. of the azide to a cold solution of sodium ethoxide. While the thermolysis might be viewed as a nitrene insertion reaction, it has been demonstrated that azirine intermediates can be isolated at intermediate temperatures[3]. 

The photochemical addition of azirines to the carbonyl group of aldehydes, ketones, and esters is also completely regiospecific (77H(6)143). Besides the formation of the isomeric oxazolines (50) from (39) and ethyl cyanoformate, there is also formed the imidazole (51) from addition to C=N in the expected regioselective manner. Thioesters lead to thiazolines (52), while isocyanates and ketenes produce heterocycles (53). 

One of the more important approaches to 1-azirines involves a similar base-induced cycloelimination reaction of a suitably functionalized ketone derivative (route c. Scheme 1). This reaction is analogous to route (b) (Scheme 1) used for the synthesis of aziridines wherein displacement of the leaving group at nitrogen is initiated by a -carbanionic center. An example of this cycloelimination involves the Neber rearrangement of oxime tosylate esters (357 X = OTs) to 1-azirines and subsequently to a-aminoketones (358) (71AHC-(13)45). The reaction has been demonstrated to be configurationally indiscriminate both syn and anti ketoxime tosylate esters afforded the same product mixture of a-aminoketones... 

A variety of 1-azirines are available (40-90%) from the thermally induced extrusion (>100 °C) of triphenylphosphine oxide from oxazaphospholines (388) (or their acyclic betaine equivalents), which are accessible through 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile oxides (389) to alkylidenephosphoranes (390) (66AG(E)1039). Frequently, the isomeric ketenimines (391) are isolated as by-products. The presence of electron withdrawing functionality in either or both of the addition components can influence the course of the reaction. For example, addition of benzonitrile oxide to the phosphorane ester (390 = C02Et) at... 

The 3//-azepines obtained by cycloaddition of azirines to cyclopentadienones (see Section 3.1.1.1.2.) are thought to arise from the initially formed 2/7-azepines by [1,5]-H suprafacial sigmatropic shifts.31-108 In contrast, 1/Z-azepine 9 results from the thermal rearrangement of the nonisolable 2//-azepine-2-carboxylate 8.13 Presumably, the 1 //-azepine is stabilized, relative to the 3//-isomer, by intramolecular hydrogen bonding between the NH and the adjacent ester group. 

Azirines can be prepared in optically enriched form by the asymmetric Neber reaction mediated by Cinchona alkaloids. Thus, ketoxime tosylates 173, derived from 3-oxocarhoxylic esters, are converted to the azirine carboxylic esters 174 in the presence of a large excess of potassium carbonate and a catalytic amount of quinidine. The asymmetric bias is believed to be conferred on the substrate by strong hydrogen bonding via the catalyst hydroxyl group <96JA8491>. 

Keywords Aziridine-2-carboxylic esters. Ring expansion reactions, Azirine carboxylic esters, Aziridine carbinols. Anomalous amino acids... 

The first compound is an antibiotic isolated from Streptomyces aureus [20], while the second compound is a cytotoxic antibiotic isolated from Dysidea fragilis, a marine sponge [21]. A logical approach to the synthesis of azirines would be an elimination reaction of a suitably M-substituted aziridine. Thus, AT-chlorination of aziridine-2-carboxylic esters was carried out using ferf-butyl hypochlorite (Scheme 8). 

H-azirine no conjugation of the imine function with the ester... 

The formation of 2H-pyrroles (21) and a pyrrole derivative (22) from the reaction of 3-phenyl-2//-azirines and acetylenic esters in the presence of molybdenum hexacarbonyl is intriguing mechanistically (Schemes 24, 25).53 Carbon-nitrogen bond cleavage must occur perhaps via a molybdenum complex (cf. 23 in Scheme 26) but intermediate organometallic species have not yet been isolated.53 Despite the relatively poor yields of 2H-pyrrole products, the process is synthetically valuable since the equivalent uncatalyzed photochemical process produces isomeric 2H-pyrroles from a primary reaction of azirine C—C cleavage54 (Scheme 24). 

Intramolecular addition of trialkylboranes to imines and related compounds have been reported and the main results are part of review articles [94, 95]. Addition of ethyl radicals generated from Et3B to aldimines affords the desired addition product in fair to good yield but low diaster control (Scheme 40, Eq. 40a) [96]. Similar reactions with aldoxime ethers [97], aldehyde hydrazones [97], and N-sulfonylaldimines [98] are reported. Radical addition to ketimines has been recently reported (Eq. 40b) [99]. Addition of triethylborane to 2H-azirine-3-carboxylate derivatives is reported [100]. Very recently, Somfai has extended this reaction to the addition of different alkyl radicals generated from trialkylboranes to a chiral ester of 2ff-azirine-3-carboxylate under Lewis acid activation with CuCl (Eq. 40c) [101]. 

An efficient synthesis of 2Ff-azirines 6 substituted with a phosphate group is described. Its key step is an alkaloid catalyzed Neber reaction of -ketoxime tosylates 5 (equation 3) . Similarly, azirines containing an ester group in position 2 were obtained from tosy-lated oximes . A novel approach to substituted 2Ff-azirines using benzotriazole (Bt) methodology was recently presented. The reaction of benzotriazole oxime tosylates formed from the oxime 7 and TsCl with aqueous KOH yielded 2-(benzotriazol-l-yl)-2H-azirines. 

The use of compounds with activated methylene protons (doubly activated) enables the use of a mild base during the Neber reaction to 277-azirines. Using ketoxime 4-toluenesulfonates of 3-oxocarboxylic esters 539 as starting materials and a catalytic quantity of chiral tertiary base for the reaction, moderate to high enantioselectivity (44-82% ee) was achieved (equation 240). This asymmetric conversion was observed for the three pairs of Cinchona alkaloids (Cinchonine/Cinchonidine, Quinine/Quinidine and Dihydro-quinine/Dihydroquinidine). When the pseudoenantiomers of the alkaloid bases were used, opposite enantioselectivity was observed in the reaction. This fact shows that the absolute configuration of the predominant azirine can be controlled by base selection. 

A general type of [3 + 3] heterocyclization involves initial nucleophilic attack on the electrophilic three-membered heterocycle by a 1,3-electrophile-nucleophile. Aziridines (330) with either a-mercapto ketones (329) or with a mixture of a ketone and sulfur give 5,6-dihydro-1,4-thiazines (330 — 331 — 332). Azirines (333) can be used for the preparation of pyrazinones (334) from ot-amino esters R2CH(NH2)C02Et and of 1,4-oxazinones from a-hydroxy esters (83TL1153). 

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