Birch reductive cleavage

FIGURE 17a. Alternative routes for vinylogous birch reductive cleavage of cinnamyl ether promoted by lithium naphthalenide. Reprinted with permission from Reference 22. Copyright 1996 American Chemical Society... 

Metal-ammonia solutions reduce conjugated enones to saturated ketones and reductively cleave a-acetoxy ketones i.e. ketol acetates) to the unsubstituted ketones. In both cases the actual reduction product is the enolate salt of a saturated ketone this salt resists further reduction. If an alcohol is present in the reaction mixture, the enolate salt protonates and the resulting ketone is reduced further to a saturated alcohol. Linearly or cross-conjugated dienones are reduced to enones in the absence of a proton donor other than ammonia. The Birch reduction of unsaturated ketones to saturated alcohols was first reported by Wilds and Nelson using lithium as the reducing agent. This metal has been used almost exclusively by subsequent workers for the reduction of both unsaturated and saturated ketones. Calcium has been preferred for the reductive cleavage of ketol acetates. 

The reluctance of tertiary amides to undergo hydrolysis, especially those produced in the Birch reduction-alkylation with a quaternary center next to the carbonyl group, has inspired the development of a variety of intramolecular transacylation reactions as illustrated by the cleavage of the SEM ether in 16... 

Zirconium(IV) isopropoxide, 352 Reductive alkylation of aromatic rings Birch reduction, 32 (S)-Prolinol, 261 of carbonyl groups Trityl perchlorate, 339 of other substrates Lithium-Ammonia, 158 Reductive cleavage (see also Reduction of epoxides)... 

The silver ion assisted carbon-halogen bond cleavage and the unraveling of the cyclopropane ring by the cyclopropyl-allyl rearrangement was first noted in the formation of 2-bromocyclohexen-l-ol from dibromobicyclo[3.l.0]hexane under solvolytic conditions (equation 86).220 The silver ion assisted solvolysis of the dihalocyclopropane adduct (43), derived from a Birch reduction product, smoothly rearranges to the tropone (equation 87).221 A number of other synthetic applications222-226 have beien reported... 

The most common procedure is ozonolysis at -78 °C (P.S. Bailey, 1978) in methanol or methylene chloride in the presence of dimethyl sulfide or pyridine, which reduce the intermediate ozonides to aldehydes. Unsubstituted cydohexene derivatives give 1,6-dialdehydes, enol ethers or esters yield carboxylic acid derivatives. Oxygen-substituted C—C bonds in cyclohexene derivatives, which may also be obtained by Birch reduction of alkoxyarenes (see p. 103f.), are often more rapidly oxidized than non-substituted bonds (E.J. Corey, 1968 D G. Stork, 1968 A,B). Catechol derivatives may also be directly cleaved to afford conjugated hexa-dienedioic acid derivatives (R.B. Woodward, 1963). Highly regioselective cleavage of the more electron-rich double bond is achieved in the ozonization of dienes (W. KnOll, 1975). 

Stereoselective l.4-reduction oi the 1.3-butadiene system to olefin 57 lakes place tinder the conditions of the Birch reduction. Intramolecular protonation of the intermediate carbanion at the 18-position to give 57 occurs with high selectivity syn to the hydroxymethy-iene group Conversion into phosphoric acid derivative 58 and cleavage of the phosphoric acid amide group under (he conditions of the Bcnkeser reduction provides compound 5921 Fluonde ion causes the release of free p-amyrin (1) in a final step I Li, NH3(iyTllF (1/1.75), -78 C 93%. 

Recently, two completely different methods which are compatible with an alkene have been used successfully. The first of these involves121 prior Birch reduction of the phenyl group to a cyclohexadiene. Subsequent treatment with fluoride ion and basic hydrogen peroxide then completes the overall cleavage (equation 31). 

The synthesis of prostaglandin PGB1 as described by Morin et al. (Eli Lily Research Labs.), starts with 7-(2-methoxyphenyl)heptanoic acid 142 which is converted into 143 through Birch reduction, esterification and acetalization. Ozone cleavage of 143 and cyclization of the resulting dialdehyde affords cyclopentene carbaldehyde 144 which was subjected to ( )-selective Wittig olefination with... 

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