Carbonyl condensations, compounds which

Aldol reactions, Like all carbonyl condensations, occur by nucleophilic addition of the enolate ion of the donor molecule to the carbonyl group of the acceptor molecule. The resultant tetrahedral intermediate is then protonated to give an alcohol product (Figure 23.2). The reverse process occurs in exactty the opposite manner base abstracts the -OH hydrogen from the aldol to yield a /3-keto alkoxide ion, which cleaves to give one molecule of enolate ion and one molecule of neutral carbonyl compound. 

As summarized in Figure 27.7, the mevalonate pathway begins with the conversion of acetate to acetyl CoA, followed by Claisen condensation to yield acetoacety) CoA. A second carbonyl condensation reaction with a third molecule of acetyl CoA, this one an aldol-like process, then yields the six-carbon compound 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA, which is reduced to give mevalonate. Phosphorylation, followed by loss of C02 and phosphate ion, completes the process. 

The name aldol is derived from the names of the two functional groups, aldehyde and alcohol, present in the products. The aldol and ketol readily lose water to give a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds which are aldol condensation products and the reaction is called Aldol condensation. Though ketones give ketols (compounds containing a keto and alcohol groups), the general name aldol condensation still applies to the reactions of ketones due to their similarity with aldehydes. 

There are very few reactions of real synthetic significance which proceed via condensation of two 1,3-electrophile-nucleophile species. Probably the most important of this latter type of reaction is the synthesis of pyrazines by self-condensation of an a-acylamino compound to the dihydropyrazine followed by aromatization (equation 132). The a-acylamino compounds, which dimerize spontaneously, are normally generated in situ, for example by treatment of a- hydroxy carbonyl compounds with ammonium acetate or by reduction of a-azido, -nitro or -oximino carbonyl compounds. Cyclodimerization of a-amino acids gives 2,5-dioxopiperazines (equation 133), many derivatives of which occur as natural products. Two further reactions which illustrate the 1,3-electrophile-nucleophile approach are outlined in equations (134) and (135), but su i processes are of little general utility. 

Hydroxyacetophenone and related compounds are attractive precursors of chromanones, most notably in the synthesis of their 2-phenyl derivatives. Being adjacent to the carbonyl group, the methyl group of the acetophenone is activated and forms a carbanion on treatment with base. Subsequent condensation with a carbonyl compound which lacks an a-hydrogen atom leads to a 1,3-dicarbonyl or an enone system which readily cyclizes to a chromanone. Thus, methyl formate affords the chromanone (591) (53MI22400) and formaldehyde has been used in the synthesis of 3-methylchroman-4-one from o-hydroxypropiophenone (68T949). 

In general, the mechanisms of nucleophilic additions to double bonds have not been as much studied or systemized as those of electrophilic addition. Reactions 7.51 and 7.52 are examples of the very useful Michael condensation, in which a carbanion adds to an a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl or nitrile compound. The usefulness of these reactions arises from the fact that the number of ways of building longer carbon chains from smaller ones is limited. 

Several mechanisms have been reported for pyrazine formation by Maillard reactions (21,52,53). The carbon skeletons of pyrazines come from a-dicarbonyl (Strecker) compounds which can react with ammonia to produce ot-amino ketones as described by Flament, et al. (54) which condense by dehydration and oxidize to pyrazines (Figure 6), or the dicarbonyl compounds can initiate Strecker degradation of amino acids to form ot-amino ketones which are hydrolyzed to carbonyl amines, condensed and are oxidized to substituted... 

Aldehydes can arise by Reactions C, D, and E, and they can then react with each other by the aldol condensation. Amines (and particularly their salts), including peptones and egg albumin, are effective catalysts. Additional carbonyl compounds which can participate in the condensation may be derived by the oxidation of lipids. 

Often, it is desirable to conduct an aldol condensation in which the nucleophile and the electrophile are derived from different compounds. In general, such mixed aldol condensations, involving two different aldehydes, result in the formation of several products and for this reason are not useful. For example, the reaction of ethanal and propanal results in the formation of four products because there are two possible enolate nucleophiles and two carbonyl electrophiles ... 

Further kinetic evidence for the importance of enols comes from work on the base-catalyzed condensations of carbonyl-containing compounds. There are a number of such reactions characteristic of aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, amides, etc. Of these the most elementary appear to be the aldol condensations, which are prototypes of the others. These reactions can be represented by the equation... 

III. Claisen condensations, in which -keto carbonyl compounds are formed by the loss of a negative ion from an incipient hemiketal (Claisen condensations, and Dieckmann ring closures). 

To most organic chemists the term Claisen condensation implies the self-condensation of esters in the presence of sodium ethoxide to give 0-ketoesters. A Dieckmann condensation is a special Claisen condensation in which an ester of a dibasic acid undergoes intramolecular condensation to produce a cyclic jS-ketoester. From the point of view of mechanism, however, this idea of a Claisen condensation is perhaps unnecessarily limited, for there are a number of extremely closely related reactions which involve compounds other than esters, and bases other than sodium ethoxide. In all these transformations, the essential feature of the reaction is the addition of a carbanion to a carbonyl group, followed by the loss of a negative ion from the seat of reaction. 

Other efforts have been focused on a conceptually new, directed aldol condensation [54]. Mixed aldol condensations between two different carbonyl compounds with several possible sites for enolization are extremely difficult and there is a variety of undesired pathways involving proton transfer and over-alkylation. The aldol reaction of an a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compound with an aldehyde was investigated in the presence of ATPH. The reaction first involves fhe demand for control of reactivity and selectivity of the a, -unsaturated carbonyl compound, which upon deprotonation leads to the corresponding extended dienolate of ATPH. A second carbonyl compound aldehyde which serves as an electrophile is activated electronically (but sterically deactivated) by complexation with ATPH. This activation would enable rapid in-situ capture of fhe extended dienolate. ATPH was the reagent of choice, because it could effectively make a strong coordination bond upon encapsulating a number of a, -unsaturated carbonyl compounds. 

The mechanism of the reaction which takes place in the presence of nickel as well as certain other of the metal catalysts, has been explained by assuming that metallic carbonyls are formed by the action of carbon monoxide on the metal and that these compounds represent intermediate products in the catalyses. Evidence in support of this theory has been brought forward by Mond, Langer and Quinke,0- who studied the decomposition of carbon monoxide in contact with nickel at temperatures between 350° and 450° C. In examining the carbonized nickel catalyst at the end of the experiment these investigators discovered that when heated, it gave off a volatile inflammable nickel compound which could be condensed to a liquid and which was later identified as nickel carbonyl. Metals, such as nickel, cobalt, and iron, which form distinct metallic carbonyls are particularly active catalysts for the decomposition, a fact which adds weight to this theory. 

Until recently, little success had been achieved in developing a highly enantioselective version of the Darzens reaction. Several investigations of chiral phase-transfer catalysts for this condensation, in which low or modest asymmetric induction is obtained, have been reported. These include the use of N-alky -N-methylephedrinium halides, the quinine-derived salt (120), and polyamino acids. A related study has examined the use of achiral phase-transfer catalysts in the condensations of carbonyl compounds and the asymmetric chloromethylsulfonate ester (121). The same group of researchers subsequently reported similar studies employing the sulfonamides (122)-(124). ... 

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