Carbolines 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-, synthesis

These formulae explain the scission products of the two alkaloids and the conversion of evodiamine into rutaecarpine, and were accepted by Asahina. A partial synthesis of rutaecarpine was effected by Asahina, Irie and Ohta, who prepared the o-nitrobenzoyl derivative of 3-)3-amino-ethylindole-2-carboxylic acid, and reduced this to the corresponding amine (partial formula I), which on warming with phosphorus oxychloride in carbon tetrachloride solution furnished rutaecarpine. This synthesis was completed in 1928 by the same authors by the preparation of 3-)S-amino-ethylindole-2-carboxylic acid by the action of alcoholic potassium hydroxide on 2-keto-2 3 4 5-tetrahydro-3-carboline. An equally simple synthesis was effected almost simultaneously by Asahina, Manske and Robinson, who condensed methyl anthranilate with 2-keto-2 3 4 5-tetrahydro-3-carboline (for notation, see p. 492) by the use of phosphorus trichloride (see partial formulae II). Ohta has also synthesised rutaecarpine by heating a mixture of 2-keto-2 3 4 5-tetrahydrocarboline with isatoic anhydride at 195° for 20 minutes. 

This reaction is also a key method for the formation of tetrahydro-P-carbolines 5 from indole bases 4 and aldehydes, ketones, or 1,2-di carbonyl compounds 2. These reactions are similarly acid-catalyzed or thermally-induced and have been utilized in the synthesis of numerous indole alkaloids. 

The decarboxylated products are obtained directly, however, if condensation of tryptamine with the a-oxo acid is carried out in aqueous solution at elevated temperature. This direct synthesis of a l-substituted-l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carboline has been carried out with... 

A variety of l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carbolines have been prepared from 3-piperidone phenylhydrazone derivatives. Used initially to obtain pentacyclic derivatives (35) related to the yohimbe alkaloids, this route was later extended to the synthesis of tetracyclic compounds (36). l-Methyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-j8-carboline (37) was prepared in low yield by heating cyclohexanone 2-methyl-3-pyridylhydrazone with zinc chloride, a synthesis probably based on the similar preparation of the tetracyclic compound 38 starting from the corresponding quinolylhydrazine. Abramovitch and Adams extended this approach to the cyclization of cyclohexanone 3-pyri-dylhydrazone (39) itself. The main product was 6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-8-carboline (40), a smaller amount of the j8-isomer (41) also being obtained. This provides a convenient and readily reproducible route to the otherwise difficultly accessible 8-carboline ring system. The favored attack at carbon-2 over carbon-4 of the pyridine nucleus... 

In a recent variation of this synthesis of the tetrahydro-j8-carboline system, hexahydro derivatives (65) of the salt 55 were cyclized to fully aromatic j8-carbohne derivatives (66a and 66b) on palladium dehydrogenation, presumably by way of an enamine intermediate. ... 

The acid-catalyzed conversion of the l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carboline derivative 337 (R = CHg) into the strychnine-type ring system 338 has been attributed to an equilibrium involving the protonated Schiff s base 339 of tryptamine (i.e., the intermediate in the Pictet-Spengler type synthesis of tetrahydro-j8-carbolines, cf. Section III, A, 1, a), and the a- (337) and the j8-condensation products (340). 

The formation of an iminium ion as 2-530 is also proposed by Heaney and coworkers in the synthesis of a tetrahydro- 3-carboline 2-531 (Scheme 2.120) [282]. Herein, heating a solution of tryptamine (2-526) and the acetal 2-527 in the presence of 10 mol% of Sc(OTf)3 gives in the first step the N, O-acetal 2-528, which then leads to the lactam 2-529 and further to the iminium ion 2-530 by elimination of methanol. The last step is a well-known Pictet-Spengler type cyclization to give the final product 2-531 in 91% yield. 

A few intriguing developments in the area of tetrahydro-P-carboline synthetic methodology include the report of a catalytic asymmetric Pictet-Spengler reaction <06JACS1086> and an enantioselective Pd-catalyzed intramolecular allylic alkylation of indoles <06JACS1424>. A one-step synthesis of 1-substituted-P-carbolines from L-tryptophan has appeared that bypassed the tetrahydro intermediate <06T10900>. 

Wu and Sun have presented a versatile procedure for the liquid-phase synthesis of 1,2, ,4-tctrahydro-/i-carbolines [77]. After successful esterification of the MeO-PEG-OH utilized with Fmoc-protected tryptophan, one-pot cyclocondensations with various ketones and aldehydes were performed under microwave irradiation (Scheme 7.68). The desired products were released from the soluble support in good yields and high purity. The interest in this particular scaffold is due to the fact that the l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-/f-carboline pharmacophore is known to be an important structural element in several natural alkaloids, and that the template possesses multiple sites for combinatorial modifications. The microwave-assisted liquid-phase protocol furnished purer products than homogeneous protocols and product isolation/ purification was certainly simplified. 

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