Benzylic substituent

Evans s bis(oxazolinyl)pyridine (pybox) complex 17, which is effective for the Diels-Alder reaction of a-bromoacrolein and methacrolein (Section 2.1), is also a suitable catalyst for the Diels-Alder reaction of acrylate dienophiles [23] (Scheme 1.33). In the presence of 5 mol% of the Cu((l )-pybox)(SbF5)2 catalyst with a benzyl substituent, tert-butyl acrylate reacts with cyclopentadiene to give the adduct in good optical purity (92% ee). Methyl acrylate and phenyl acrylate underwent cycloadditions with lower selectivities. 

Furthermore the formation of <9-substituted hydroxylamines 12, e.g. by migration of an allyl or benzyl substituent, is possible ... 

Sulfinyl oxiranes 2 can be desulfurized with butyllithium at very low temperature to give oxiranes with retention of configuration as a result of a ligand exchange at sulfur (see also Table 6). However, with a benzylic substituent R1, an excess of butyllithium may at higher temperatures induce an elimination to an allylic alcohol. 

The method is very useful for the synthesis of physiologically interesting a-mcthylamino acids, e.g., methyl dopa from the 3,4-dimethoxybenzyl derivative. The excellent stereoselection achieved in the process, however, is caused by the preferential crystallization of one pure diastereomerfrom the equilibrium mixture formed in the reversible Strecker reaction. Thus, the pure diastcrcomers with benzyl substituents, dissolved in chloroform or acetonitrile, give equilibrium mixtures of both diastereomers in a ratio of about 7 347. This effect has also been found for other s-methylamino nitriles of quite different structure49. If the amino nitrile (R1 = Bn) is synthesized in acetonitrile solution, the diastereomers do not crystallize while immediate hydrolysis indicates a ratio of the diastereomeric amino nitriles (S)I(R) of 86 1447. 

Sulfones are thermally very stable compounds, diaryl derivatives being more stable than alkyl aryl sulfones which, in turn, are more stable than dialkyl sulfones allyl and benzyl substituents facilitate the homolysis by lowering the C—S bond dissociation energy17. Arylazo aryl sulfones, on heating in neutral or weakly basic media at 100°C, yield an aryl and arenesulfonyl radical pair via a reversible one-bond fission followed by dediazoni-ation of the aryldiazenyl radical (see Scheme 2 below)20. However, photolysis provides a relatively easy method for generating sulfonyl radicals from compounds containing the S02 moiety. 

The spiro compound 206 was prepared in five steps from (S)-l-naphthyl-ethylamine and was composed of a mixture of imine and enamine tautomers. Reduction of the imine function by sodium borohydride occurred on the less hindered si face, leading to the diamine with the R configuration of the newly formed stereo center, then the N-benzyl substituent was removed by hydrogenolysis to give 207 with good overall yield [98] (Scheme 30). 

Novel chiral thiolated amino alcohols have been recently synthesised and then evaluated by Vilaivan el al. as a potential new class of ligands for Cu-catalysed nitroaldol reactions. Amino alcohol ligands bearing Ai-(2-alkyl-thio)benzyl substituents provided only modest enantioselectivities (22-46% ee) while those carrying Al-2-thienylmethyl substituents provided better enantioselectivities of up to 75% ee for the nitroaldol reaction between p-nitro-benzaldehyde and nitromethane. A range of aromatic aldehydes were acceptable substrates giving moderate to high enantioselectivities of up to 88% ee, as shown in Scheme 10.32. 

Bromomethyl-3,4-dibromo-3,4-dihydrocoumarin 1 (Fig. 11.4) and its chloro-methylated analogue 2b rapidly and progressively inactivate a-chymotrypsin and also the activities of a series of trypsin-like proteases. A benzyl substituent characteristic of good substrates of a-chymotrypsin was introduced at the 3-position to make inhibition more selective. This substituted dihydrocoumarin 3 irreversibly inhibited a-chymotrypsin and other proteases. These functionalized six-membered aromatic lactones, and their five- and seven-membered counterparts, 3//-benzofuran-2-ones 2a26 and 4,5-dihydro-3//-benzo[b]oxepin-2-ones 2c,27 were the first efficient suicide inhibitors of serine proteases. Their postulated mechanism of action is shown in Scheme 11.2. 

A violent explosion occurred at the start of bulb-tube distillation of a 2 g sample of the crude aldehyde (b.p. 9774 mbar) at 75°C/0.13 mbar [1], It seems likely that the crude product could have formed peroxide during the 2 day s storage (in a closed but not hermetically sealed vessel) between preparation and distillation. The structure is such that the proton on C-2, which effectively has 2 benzyl substituents and an adjacent carbonyl function, seems rather susceptible to autoxidation [2], See other aldehydes, peroxidisable compounds... 

Benzo-fused pyridopyrrolizines can be prepared by an acid-induced cyclodehydration of the appropriately substituted hydroxypyrrolopyridines. In the case of 124 (Equation 7), this is best rationalized as an intramolecular electrophilic substitution at the o-carbon of the benzyl substituent <1988CC623, 1990J(P1)1757, 2001J(P1)1446>. 

In molecules containing two cyclobutenes, addition of organic azides 26 yielded two adducts, e.g. reaction with 50 with benzyl azide 56 produced the cr-isomer 57a in which the (V-benzyl substituents were sy -aligned and the C2-isomer 57b in which they were anti-orientated (Scheme 7). The structure of syn-isomer 57a was confirmed by X-ray (Figure 2). The fact that both isomers yielded the same fns-aziridine 58 upon photolysis made separation of the individual triazoline isomers unnecessary. 

Coupling ortho to the phenol group in the tetrahydroisoquinoline and para to the phenol in the benzyl substituent then yields the dienone salutaridine, found as a minor alkaloid constituent in the opium poppy. Only the original benzyl aromatic ring can be restored to aromaticity, since the tetrahydroisoquinoline fragment becomes coupled para to the phenol function, a position that is already substituted. 

The addition of thiobenzoyl isocyanate to norbornene and norbornadiene resulted in the thiazinones 230 (R = Ph) and 231, respectively (67CB685). The ter/-butyl- and mesityl-substituted analogs of 230 were prepared by the same method. In the case of a benzyl substituent, the derivative 232 containing an exo double bond was formed (81CB549). 

As a prelude to the use of olefination reactions to introduce the fluoroolefin amide isostere, the synthesis of fluoroolefin analogs of CGP 49823 is described where a nonpeptidic amide bond was replaced with a fluoroolefin [55]. Comparison of the binding affinities of these analogs for the NK1 receptor enabled determination of the active conformation of the amide containing compound CGP 49823. It was otherwise not easy to establish that the syn orientation of the aromatic ring of the benzamide towards the 2-benzyl substituent was the active conformation (Scheme 10). 

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