Carbon building blocks

Propiolaldehyde diethyl acetal has found numerous synthetic applications in the literature which may be briefly summarized. The compound has been utilized in the synthesis of unsaturated and polyunsaturated acetals and aldehydes by alkylation of metal-lated derivatives, " by Cadiot-Chodkiewicz coupling with halo acetylenes, " and by reaction with organocuprates. Syntheses of heterocyclic compounds including pyrazoles, isoxazoles, triazoles, and pyrimidines have employed this three-carbon building block. Propiolaldehyde diethyl acetal has also been put to use in the synthesis of such natural products as polyacetylenes " and steroids. ... 

Figure 2.4 Enantiomerically pure six-carbon building blocks accessible from D-glucose via glucal (upper half) or hydroxyglucal esters (lower entries) as the key intermediates. All products require no more than 3 to 5 straightforward steps from D-glucose. ...

Hydroxypropionic Acid (3-HPA). Like the structurally isomeric lactic acid, 3-HPA constitutes a three-carbon building block with the potential of becoming a key intermediate for a variety of high-volume chemicals malonic and acrylic acids, methacrylate, acrylonitrile, 1,3-propanediol, and so forth.Thus, Cargill is developing a low-cost fermentation route by metabolic engineering of the microbial... 

Scheme 2.14 Readily accessible five-carbon building blocks from D-xylose.

Another entry into useM five-carbon building blocks from d-xylose encompasses the expeditious four-step protocol for the l-phenylpyrazol-3-carboxaldehyde with a 5-hydroxymethyl substituent (Scheme 2.15) and the various follow-up reactions feasible. 

Next, a development of a new and potentially useful 4-carbon building block for the L-sugars was undertaken, and it was found 4-0-benzyl-2,3-0-isopropylidene-L-threose 18 is readily prepared starting from L-tartaric acid (34). 

The two-carbon building blocks must be transported out of the mitochondria, where they exist in the form of acetyl CoA. 

In the total synthesis of 1-fluoroellipticine (56), 1-ethoxy-1-tributylstannylethene was once again used as a two-carbon building block. The 4-pyridylbromide 54 was assembled by applying a metalation/halogen-dance strategy starting from 2-fluoropyridine <92JOC565>. 

An application of the deracemization strategy has provided efficient entry to a novel amino acid substituent of the antifungal agents, polyoxins and nikkomycins, as shown in Scheme 8E.20. The versatile five-carbon building block was obtained from phthalimidation of the hydroxymethyl-substituted epoxide in 87% yield and 82% ee. Straightforward synthesis of polyoxamic acid was then accomplished by subsequent dihydroxylation and selective oxidation of the alkylation product. 

Recently, the use of carbon dioxide as a carbon building block [152] has attracted increasing attention. The hydrosilylation of carbon dioxide catalyzed preferably by ruthenium complexes leads to the synthesis of silyl formate esters (Eq. 98) [153]. Results of the reaction of hydrosilylation in supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent and substrate have recently been reported [154]. 

The biosynthesis of cholesterol begins with acetyl-CoA in what is a very complex process involving 32 different enzymes, some of which are soluble in the cytosol and others of which are bound to the ER membrane. The basic carbon building block of cholesterol is isoprene (Chap. 6). 

Additionally, acetylene itself is a useful two-carbon building block but is not very convenient to handle as it is an explosive gas. Trimethylsilyl acetylene is a distillable liquid that is a convenient substitute for acetylene in reactions involving the lithium derivative as it has only one acidic proton. The synthesis of this alkynyl ketone is an example. Deprotonation with butyl lithium provides the alkynyl lithium that reacted with the alkyl chloride in the presence of iodide as nucleophilic catalyst (see Chapter 17). Removal of the trimethylsilyl group with potassium carbonate in methanol allowed further reaction on the other end of the alkyne. 

The prevalence of fatty acids with even numbers of carbon atoms suggests a two-carbon building block, the most obvious being acetate. If labelled acetate is fed to plants, the fatty acids emerge with labels on alternate carbons like this. 

Reactive three-carbon building blocks such as alkynones [32] and 1,3-diaryl pro-penones (chalcones) (for a review on the chemistry of 1,3-diaryl propenones, see e.g. [33]) which can react with bifunctional nucleophiles in a sequence of Michael addition and cyclocondensation open a facile access to five-, six-, and seven-membered heterocycles (Scheme 1). As a consequence, this general strategy has found broad application. However, standard syntheses of alkynones [34] and chalcones [33] are often harsh and require either strongly basic or strongly Lewis or Brpnsted acidic conditions. Therefore, the application in one-pot methodology, where delicately balanced reaction conditions are a prerequisite, is largely excluded. 

Scheme 1 Ynones and enones as three-carbon building blocks in heterocycle synthesis...

Alkynones are potent Michael acceptors in heterocyclic chemistry and many five-, six-, and seven-membered heterocycles can be synthesized from reactive, bifunctional three-carbon building blocks such as alkynones by classical heterocyclic chemistry [32]. Taking into account the mild, catalytic access to alkynones the coupling-addition-cyclocondensation sequence for multicomponent approaches to five-, six-, and seven-ring heterocycles lies at hand (Scheme 19). 

The Cl sequence introduced in Chap. 2.2 represents a mild and catalytic access to chalcones. l,3-Diarylprop-2-en-l-ones are bifunctional electrophilic Michael-systems and per se important three-carbon building blocks in synthetic heterocyclic chemistry [33]. Among many classes of five-, six-, and seven-membered heterocycles the underlying principle is always the Michael-addition-cyclocondensation sequence of chalcones and bifunctional nucleophiles [176-181, 222-229]. Furthermore, chalcones can also participate in cycloadditions, as dienophiles and dipolar-ophiles and furnish in the case of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions with diazo alkanes pyrazolines [230, 231], with azides triazolines [232], with nitrones isoxazolidines [233] with azomethinylides pyrrolidines [234], or with nitriloxides isoxazolines [235]. Therefore, the mild, catalytic access to chalcones by the CIR excellently sets the stage for the development of consecutive MCRs based upon cyclocondensation strategies. 

The presence of two negative charges in close proximity makes this new reagent 174 extremely reactive. Its carbanionic sites, at C-1 and C-3, however, differ sharply in their nucleophilicity and reactivity. The different surroundings of the carbanionic centers in this system makes the carbanion at C-3 better stabilized than at C-1. Therefore, electrophilic attack should be directed primarily at C-1. In fact, the addition of one equivalent of an electrophile to a solution of 174 leads to a highly selective attack at the terminal carbon atom. The product of this reaction, 175, still retains a carbanionic center and with the addition of another electrophile the formation of a second bond occurs selectively at C-2. In this manner, the dianion 174 is an excellent three-carbon building block for the synthesis of ketones of type 176 or four-carbon building block for the synthesis of esters of the type 177. 

Methyl-3-propiolactone is useful as a four-carbon building block for terpenoid synthesis (eq 4). Citronellic acid (9) isprepared by reaction with the homoprenyl Grignard reagent pulegone (10), citronellol (11), geraniol, and nerol (12) can be obtained by further functional group manipulations. ... 

Mevalonic acid, a six-carbon building block, is made up from three molecules of the most basic two-carbon precursor, acetyl-CoA. The mevalonate pathway, which involves the intermediary of mevalonic acid, directs acetate into a series of natural products different from those derived directly from the acetate pathway and includes terpenoids and steroids. Terpenoids constitute the most chemically diverse and one of the largest groups of plant natural products, and therefore a detailed discussion on this group of natural products is warranted. 

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