By Total Synthesis

2-3 represents the normal course for the Wittig reaction. Treatment with acid then hydrolyzes the acetal groups to reveal the 1,4-dione function (2-4). This cyclizes to the cyclopentenone 2-5 on treatment with base. Cyclization in the opposite sense is apparently not problematic. Reaction with methyllithium then affords intermediate 2-6, which now includes a fairly labile tertiary allylic methylcarbinol. 

Treatment of that intermediate with base leads to aldol condensation that forms a cyclohexanone and thus racemic progesterone (1-3). 

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Pharmaceutically useful steroids may be either obtained by total synthesis or by degradation and functional group conversions from inexpensive natural steroids. Both approaches will be discussed in this section (H. Langecker, 1977 R.T. Blickenstaff, 1974). 

The few macrolides having 12-membered rings are Hsted in Table 2. Methymycin (12, R = OH, R = H), isolated from culture broths of a Streptomjces species (29), was the first macroHde stmcture elucidated (30). It is comprised of the aglycone methynolide (13, R = OH, R = H) and the aminosugar desosamine (1, R = OH, R = H) (31,32). Methymycin was also the first conventional macroHde made by total synthesis (33). 

Neomethymycin (12, R = H, R = OH), an isomer co-produced with methymycin, is the product of hydroxylation at C-12 rather than C-10 of the lactone (34,35). The corresponding aglycone, neomethynoHde (13, R = H, R = OH), was isolated with methynolide from broths of S. vene elae (36). The stereochemistry of 12(R)- for neomethynoHde was estabHshed by total synthesis (37). YC-17 (12, R = R = H), also found in broths of S. vene elae is a possible precursor of methymycin and neomethymycin. The hydroxyl groups at C-12 and C-10 are probably added as late steps in the biosynthesis (38). 

The major component of the oil extracted from bell peppers has been shown, initially on the basis of mass spectral studies but subsequently by total synthesis, to be 2-methoxy-3-... 

Substitution at C(5) of the penicillanic ring system has been relatively little explored. The 5a-phenyl analog has been prepared by total synthesis as shown in Scheme 26 75JMC486). It was interesting that epimerization (step iv) occurs without side chain silylation (cf. Section 5.11.3.8.4). 

Other derivatives of s-triazine, in particular the 2,4-disubstituted ones, are usually prepared by total synthesis and are therefore not closely linked with the chemistry of 5-azauracil unlike the analogous derivatives of 1,2,4-triazine. 2,4-Dimethoxy-l,3,5-triazine was mentioned earlier (e.g., Section II,A,2,a), the other substances are not related to the present subject. 

Although all the main classes of steroids have now been attained by total synthesis, most drugs are in fact, as noted above, prepared by partial synthesis from natural products that contain the steroid nucleus. The bulk of the world s supply of steroid starting material is derived by differing chemical routes from only two species of plants the Mexican yam, a species of... 

Steroids not readily accessible by modification of plant starting materials, for example, those possessing unusual substituents at the angular positions, are made available by total synthesis. 

Although morphine has been prepared by total synthesis, the complexity of the molecule makes such an approach unattractive on a commercial scale. The drug in fact is obtained by fractionation of opium obtained from the poppy morphine in turn is used as starting material for various derivatives. If it were not for the importance of these drugs in the clinic, some progress might have been made in eradication of the plant. 

Woodward achieved his first signal success of a lifetime devoted to the preparation of increasingly complex natural products by total synthesis by the successful preparation of quinine. Despite its elegance, this synthesis did not provide a commercially viable alternative to isolation of the drug from chincona bark. A rather short synthesis for this drug from readily available starting materials has been only recently developed by the group at Hoffmann-LaRoche. (The economics of this synthesis are,... 

When chiral, drugs and other molecules obtained from natural sources or by semisynthesis usually contain one of the possible enantiomeric forms. However, those obtained by total synthesis often consist of mixtures of both enantiomers. In order to develop commercially the isolated enantiomers, two alternative approaches can be considered (i) enantioselective synthesis of the desired enantiomer or (ii) separation of both isomers from a racemic mixture. The separation can be performed on the target molecule or on one of its chemical precursors obtained from conventional synthetic procedures. Both strategies have their advantages and drawbacks. 

Secoquettamine (234) and dihydrosecoquettamine (235) together with their probable biogenetic precursor quettamine (236) form a small group of alkaloids. They were isolated by Shamma et at. (179) from Berberis baluchista-nica in yields of 0.00036,0.00017, and 0.0012%, respectively. These alkaloids incorporate either a benzofuran or a dihydrobenzofuran ring within the molecular framework, and the seco ones possess the /V,W-dimethylaminoethyl substituent. The structures of these bases were determined on the grounds of spectral data as well as by total synthesis. There is one chiral center at C in dihydrosecoquettamine (235) however, the base was isolated in the form of a racemic mixture (179). 

The relative and absolute stereochemistry of antimitotic macrolide archazolid A and B, originally isolated in the early nineties, has been determined on the basis of extensive high-field NMR studies, molecular modelling and chemical derivatization <06OL4751>. The proposed structures have yet to be confirmed by total synthesis. 

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