Carbonyl groups stereoselective reductions

Conjugate reduction.1 This stable copper(I) hydride cluster can effect conjugate hydride addition to a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, with apparent utilization of all six hydride equivalents per cluster. No 1,2-reduction of carbonyl groups or reduction of isolated double bonds is observed. Undesirable side reactions such as aldol condensation can be suppressed by addition of water. Reactions in the presence of chlorotrimethylsilane result in silyl enol ethers. The reduction is stereoselective, resulting in hydride delivery to the less-hindered face of the substrate. 

Synthetically useful stereoselective reductions have been possible with cyclic carbonyl compounds of rigid conformation. Reduction of substituted cyclohexanone and cyclopentan-one rings by hydrides of moderate activity, e.g. NaBH (J.-L. Luche, 1978), leads to alcohols via hydride addition to the less hindered side of the carbonyl group. Hydrides with bulky substituents 3IQ especially useful for such regio- and stereoselective reductions, e.g. lithium hydrotri-t-butoxyaluminate (C.H. Kuo, 1968) and lithium or potassium tri-sec-butylhydro-borates or hydrotri-sec-isoamylborates (=L-, K-, LS- and KS-Selectrides ) (H.C. Brown, 1972 B C.A. Brown, 1973 S. Krishnamurthy, 1976). 

Enzyme catalyzed reductions of carbonyl groups are more often than not com pletely stereoselective Pyruvic acid for example is converted exclusively to (5) (+) lactic acid by the lactate dehydrogenase NADH system (Section 15 11) The enantiomer... 

The well-known reduction of carbonyl groups to alcohols has been refined in recent studies to render the reaction more regioselective and more stereoselective Per-fluorodiketones are reduced by lithium aluminum hydride to the corresponding diols, but the use of potassium or sodium borohydride allows isolation of the ketoalcohol Similarly, a perfluoroketo acid fluonde yields diol with lithium aluminum hydnde, but the related hydroxy acid is obtainable with potassium borohydnde [i f] (equations 46 and 47)... 

Alkylation of dianions occurs at the more basic carbon. This technique permits alkylation of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds to be carried out cleanly at the less acidic position. Since, as discussed earlier, alkylation of the monoanion occurs at the carbon between the two carbonyl groups, the site of monoalkylation can be controlled by choice of the amount and nature of the base. A few examples of the formation and alkylation of dianions are collected in Scheme 1.7. In each case, alkylation occurs at the less stabilized anionic carbon. In Entry 3, the a-formyl substituent, which is removed after the alkylation, serves to direct the alkylation to the methyl-substituted carbon. Entry 6 is a step in the synthesis of artemisinin, an antimalarial component of a Chinese herbal medicine. The sulfoxide serves as an anion-stabilizing group and the dianion is alkylated at the less acidic a-position. Note that this reaction is also stereoselective for the trans isomer. The phenylsulfinyl group is removed reductively by aluminum. (See Section 5.6.2 for a discussion of this reaction.)... 

Chelation Control. The stereoselectivity of reduction of carbonyl groups can be controlled by chelation when there is a nearby donor substituent. In the presence of such a group, specific complexation among the substituent, the carbonyl oxygen, and the Lewis acid can establish a preferred conformation for the reactant. Usually hydride is then delivered from the less sterically hindered face of the chelate so the hydroxy group is anti to the chelating substituent. 

Asymmetric reduction of ketones. Pioneering work by Ohno et al. (6, 36 7, 15) has established that l-benzyl-l,4-dihydronicotinamide is a useful NADH model for reduction of carbonyl groups, but only low enantioselectivity obtains with chiral derivatives of this NADH model. In contrast, this chiral 1,4-dihydropyridine derivative (1) reduces a-keto esters in the presence of Mg(II) or Zn(II) salts in >90% ee (equation I).1 This high stereoselectivity of 1 results from the beneficial effect... 

Diastereoselective reduction of p-keto esters.1 Reduction of p-keto esters (3) of the chiral a-naphthylborneol (2)2 is stereoselective because one face of the carbonyl group is blocked by the naphthyl group. Chelation of the keto ester with... 

Other reagents used for the preparation of lactones from acid anhydrides are lithium borohydride [1019], lithium triethylborohydride (Superhydride ) [1019] and lithium tris sec-butyl)borohydride (L-Selectride ) [1019]. Of the three complex borohydrides the last one is most stereoselective in the reduction of 3-methylphthalic anhydride, 3-methoxyphthalic anhydride, and 1-methoxynaphthalene-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride. It reduces the less sterically hindered carbonyl group with 85-90% stereoselectivity and is 83-91% yield [1019]. 

The stereoselectivity of reduction of carbonyl groups is effected by the same combination of steric and stereoelectronic factors which control the addition of other nucleophiles, such as enolates and organometallic reagents to carbonyl groups. A general discussion of these factors on addition of hydride is given in Section 3.10 of Part A. 

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