Borneol biosynthesis

Borneol, camphene, and a-pinene are made in nature from geranyl pyrophosphate. The biosynthesis of a-pinene and the related camphor is described in the chapter. In the laboratory bornyl chloride and camphene can be made from a-pinene by the reactions described below. Give mechanisms for these reactions and say whether you consider them to be biomimetic. 

Figure 3.11 shows the biosynthesis of (+)-bornyl pyrophosphate (the precursor of (-l-)-borneol (28) and (+)-camphor (29)) and of (+)-sabinene (30) (the precursor of the thujones) from 3R)-20 cyclized in an anti,endo conformation (Wise et al. 1998). Other related products include camphene (31) and 1,8-cineole (32). The chemistry involved in the formation of the final products includes Wagner-Meerwein rearrangements of hydride and (in the case of camphene) a skeletal carbon-carbon bond as well as simple cyclizations. The biosynthesis of (-)-a-and P-pinene (33 and 34) proceeds along similar lines from (3S)-20 and is shown in Figure 3.12. 

---