Carboxylic acid chlorides organocadmium reagents

Grignard reagents derived from aryl bromides are readily prepared and may be converted into organocadmium compounds by treatment with cadmium chloride (cf. Section 5.8.4, p. 616). Reaction of an organocadmium with a carboxylic acid chloride constitutes a convenient synthesis of aryl alkyl ketones. 

The configuration at the remaining asymmetric center in a-erythro-idine, C-12, was determined by Hill and Schearer (21) who took advantage of the Hofmann degradation sequence carried out earlier (Fig. 4) which had yielded the dextrorotatory ketone XVII (-I- )-XVII was synthesized by reaction of the organocadmium reagent from o-bromoethyl-benzene with the acid chloride from (-I- )-tetrahydrofuran-3-carboxylic acid (LI). The configuration of LI was then established by conversion to (4-)-3-methyltetrahydrofuran which was also prepared from R - -)-... 

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