Carbazole alkaloids synthesis

Vinylindoles have been studied extensively and used in the synthesis of carbazoles, alkaloids and other classes of pharmacologically active compounds. MMX force field calculations have shown that coplanar s-cis and. s-trans conformations of 3-vinylindole (84, Figure 2.11) are the most stable conformers they exhibit only slight differences in their thermodynamic stabilities [86]. 

The Michael addition of the carbanions derived from esters to nitroalkenes followed by reductive cyclization has been used extensively for the preparation of pyrrolidin-2-ones (Eq. 10.76).124 This strategy is used for synthesis of the carbazole alkaloid staurosporine aglycon (K-252c).124c... 

Occurrence, Biological Activity, and Convergent Organometallic Synthesis of Carbazole Alkaloids... 

The reaction of the complex salt 6a with the arylamine 12 affords by regio-selective electrophilic substitution the iron complex 13 [88] (Scheme 11). The oxidative cyclization of complex 13 with very active manganese dioxide provides directly mukonine 14, which by ester cleavage was converted to mukoeic acid 15 [89]. Further applications of the iron-mediated construction of the carbazole framework to the synthesis of 1-oxygenated carbazole alkaloids include murrayanine, koenoline, and murrayafoline A [89]. 

The iron-mediated synthesis of 2-oxygenated carbazole alkaloids is limited and provides only a moderate yield (11%) for the oxidative cyclization to 2-methoxy-3-methylcarbazole using iodine in pyridine as the reagent [90]. Ferricenium hexafluorophosphate is the superior reagent for the iron-mediated arylamine cyclization leading to 3-oxygenated carbazoles (Scheme 12). Electrophilic substitution of the arylamines 16 with the complex salt 6a leads to the iron complexes 17. Oxidative cyclization of the complexes 17 with an excess of ferricenium hexafluorophosphate in the presence of sodium carbonate affords... 

The total synthesis of the furo[3,2-a]carbazole alkaloid furostifoline is achieved in a highly convergent manner by successive formation of the car-bazole nucleus and annulation of the furan ring (Scheme 15). Electrophilic substitution of the arylamine 30 using the complex salt 6a provides complex 31. In this case, iodine in pyridine was the superior reagent for the oxidative cyclization to the carbazole 32. Finally, annulation of the furan ring by an Amberlyst 15-catalyzed cyclization affords furostifoline 33 [97]. 

For the quinone imine cyclization of iron complexes to carbazoles the arylamine is chemoselectively oxidized to a quinone imine before the cyclodehydrogenation [99]. The basic strategy of this approach is demonstrated for the total synthesis of the 3-oxygenated tricyclic carbazole alkaloids 4-deoxycarbazomycin B, hyellazole, carazostatin, and 0-methylcarazostatin (Scheme 17). 

Despite many applications of the iron-mediated carbazole synthesis, the access to 2-oxygenated tricyclic carbazole alkaloids using this method is limited due to the moderate yields for the oxidative cyclization [88,90]. In this respect, the molybdenum-mediated oxidative coupling of an arylamine and cyclohexene 2a represents a complementary method. The construction of the carbazole framework is achieved by consecutive molybdenum-mediated C-C and C-N bond formation. The cationic molybdenum complex, required for the electrophilic aromatic substitution, is easily prepared (Scheme 23). 

Scheme 25 Synthesis of the 2-oxygenated tricyclic carbazole alkaloids 66-69 and l,r-bis(2-hydroxy-3-methylcarbazole) 70...

The molybdenum-mediated arylamine cyclization was also applied to the total synthesis of pyrano[3,2-a]carbazole alkaloids (Scheme 26). Reaction of the 5-aminochromene 71 with the complex salt 62 affords the complex 72, which on oxidative cyclization provides girinimbine 73, a key compound for the transformation into further pyrano[3,2-a] carbazole alkaloids. Oxidation of 73 with DDQ leads to murrayacine 74, while epoxidation of 73 using meta-chloro-perbenzoic acid (MCPBA) followed by hydrolysis provides dihydroxygirinim-bine75 [113]. 

Knoelker H-J (2005) Occurrence, Biological Activity, and Convergent OrganometaUic Synthesis of Carbazole Alkaloids. 244 115-148 Kolodziejski W (2005) Solid-State NMR Studies of Bone. 246 235-270 Koser GF (2003) C-Heteroatom-Bond Forming Reactions. 224 137-172 Koser GF (2003) Heteroatom-Heteroatom-Bond Forming Reactions. 224 173-183... 

From the initial discovery till today, biologically active carbazole alkaloids isolated from nature may have quite simple but in some cases also structurally complex substitution patterns. Therefore, a large number of classical and non-classical methods has been developed for the synthesis of the carbazole framework. 

The application of indolo-2,3-quinodimethanes and their cyclic analogs in the synthesis of carbazole alkaloids has attracted wide interest since they could undergo Diels-Alder reactions with a wide variety of dienophiles to afford functionalized carbazole derivatives. This represents the shortest and most elegant method for the preparation of selectively functionalized carbazole derivatives (514). 

Diels-Alder reaction of vinylindoles with dienophiles has been established as a versatile and flexible methodology for the synthesis of carbazole alkaloids. Among the two different vinylindoles, 3-vinylindoles were the first to be explored for the Diels-Alder cycloaddition methodology with a range of dienophiles to give polyfunctionalized carbazole derivatives. This reaction is catalyzed by tiifluoroacetic acid, and the yield in the absence of the acidic catalyst is very low. The reaction of substituted 3-vinylindoles 550 and 553 with ethylenic dienophiles 551 and acetylenic dienophiles 535 leads, via a tetrahydrocarbazole and a dihydrocarbazole, to the corresponding carbazoles (552 and 554), respectively (530,531) (Scheme 5.18). 

A new benzannulation methodology was developed in order to overcome the limitations of electrocyclic ring closure of divinylindoles. The cyclization is achieved via an allene-mediated electrocyclic reaction of 2,3-difunctionalized indoles. This method is more efficient for the synthesis of highly substituted 2-methyl carbazole alkaloids (559). The 3-alkenyl-2-propargylindole 557, a precursor for the allene intermediate, was prepared from 2-formylindole over several steps using simple functional group transformations (536,537) (Scheme 5.20). 

Tricarbonyliron-coordinated cyclohexadienylium ions 569 were shown to be useful electrophiles for the electrophilic aromatic substitution of functionally diverse electron-rich arylamines 570. This reaction combined with the oxidative cyclization of the arylamine-substituted tricarbonyl(ri -cyclohexadiene)iron complexes 571, leads to a convergent total synthesis of a broad range of carbazole alkaloids. The overall transformation involves consecutive iron-mediated C-C and C-N bond formation followed by aromatization (8,10) (Schemes 5.24 and 5.25). 

Over the past 15 years, we developed three procedures for the iron-mediated carbazole synthesis, which differ in the mode of oxidative cyclization arylamine cyclization, quinone imine cyclization, and oxidative cyclization by air (8,10,557,558). The one-pot transformation of the arylamine-substituted tricarbonyl(ri -cyclohexadiene) iron complexes 571 to the 9H-carbazoles 573 proceeds via a sequence of cyclization, aromatization, and demetalation. This iron-mediated arylamine cyclization has been widely applied to the total synthesis of a broad range of 1-oxygenated, 3-oxygenated, and 3,4-dioxygenated carbazole alkaloids (Scheme 5.24). 

This part of the review covers only the total synthesis of biologically active natural carbazole alkaloids. In the following sections, all of the total syntheses since 1990 are... 

In addition to the aforementioned syntheses of various carbazole-l,4-quinone alkaloids, many formal syntheses for this class of carbazole alkaloids were also reported. These syntheses involve the oxidation of the appropriate 1- or 4-oxygenated-3-methylcarbazoles using Fremy s salt (potassium nitrosodisulfonate), or PCC (pyridinium chlorochromate), or Phl(OCCXI F3)2 [bis(trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]-benzene. Our iron-mediated formal synthesis of murrayaquinone A (107) was achieved starting from murrayafoline A (7) (see Scheme 5.34). Cleavage of the methyl ether in murrayafoline A (7) and subsequent oxidation of the resulting intermediate hydroxycarbazole with Fremy s salt provided murrayaquinone A (107) (574,632) (Scheme 5.113). 

The relay compound 1025 required for the synthesis of all of these 7-oxygenated carbazole alkaloids was obtained starting from commercially available 4-bromo-toluene (1023) and m-anisidine (840) in two steps and 72% overall yield. Buchwald-Hartwig amination of 4-bromotoluene (1023) with m-anisidine (840) furnished quantitatively the corresponding diarylamine 1024. Oxidative cyclization of 1024 using catalytic amounts of palladium(ll) acetate afforded 3-methyl-7-methoxycarbazole (1025). Oxidation of 1025 with DDQ led to clauszoline-K (98), which, on cleavage of the methyl ether using boron tribromide, afforded 3-formyl-7-hydroxycarbazole (99) (546) (Scheme 5.149). 

The bis-carbazole alkaloids typically contain previously known monomeric carbazoles as structural subunits. To date, bis-carbazole alkaloids have been isolated from plants of two genera of the family Rutaceae, Murraya and Clausena, and are linked either by a methylene unit, a bisbenzylic ether bridge, a bond joining one aromatic portion directly to an annotated dihydropyran unit, or by a biaryl bond. Many reviews have appeared on the monomeric carbazole alkaloids. However, in these articles only a few bis-carbazole alkaloids were listed (3,5-7). For the first time, in 1992, Furukawa et al. compiled all of the bis-carbazole alkaloids that were known to the end of 1992 (158). Taster and Bringmann summarized to the end of 2001, the occurrence, stereochemistry, synthesis, and biological activity of the bis-carbazoles linked through a biaryl bond (159). We compiled to the mid of 2002, the occurrence, stereochemistry, synthesis, and the biological activity of all classes of bis-carbazoles (8). In this section, we cover the total syntheses of the natural bis-carbazole alkaloids reported since 1990. 

In the same year, Bringmann et al. reported the first total synthesis of the methylene-bridged dimeric carbazole alkaloids, chrestifoline A (192) and bismur-rayafoline-A (197) starting from their monomeric halfs, murrayafoline A (7) and koenoline (8) and the carbazole ester 1057, respectively (662). 

Acid treatment of a 3 1 mixture of murrayafoline A (7) and koenoline (8) led to chrestifoline A (192) in 70% yield. Addition of murrayafoline A (7) to a mixture of 1057 and lithium aluminum hydride in ether and dichloromethane afforded bismurrayafoline-A (197) in 19% yield (662) (Scheme 5.166). In addition to the aforementioned methods, the same group also reported a stereoselective synthesis of axially chiral bis-carbazole alkaloids by application of their "lactone concept" (663) and a reductive biaryl coupling leading to 2,2 -bis-carbazoles (664). 

Carbazole alkaloids condensed to a furan ring represent a relatively new class of natural products. Until now, only four, natural furocarbazoie alkaloids were isolated. Recently, we summarized the occurrence, biological activities, and total synthesis of these heteroarylcarbazoles (175,176). 

The strong interest in the synthesis of pyrido[4,3-h]carbazole alkaloids started in the late 1960s with the disclosure of the antitumor activity of ellipticine (228) and 9-methoxyellipticine (229) (see Scheme 2.56) in several animal and human tumor systems. This discovery made these alkaloids to important synthetic targets and induced extensive studies of structure modification. These synthetic efforts have... 

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