Enamines conjugate additions

Fig. 7 Proposed catalytic cycle for the amino catalytic conjugate addition enamine trapping sequence...

In each of the tandem iminium ion/enamine cascade processes described above, the enamine is trapped in an intramolecular fashion. The ability to perform the trapping seQuence in an intermolecular manner would allow for the one—pot introduction of three points of diversity. IVIacNlillan has realised this goal and described a series of secondary amine catalysed conjugate addition—enamine trapping sequences with oc P Unsaturated aldehydes using tryptophan derived imidazolidinone 115 to give the products in near perfect enantiomeric excess (Scheme 47) [178]. 

Rifamycin S also undergoes conjugate addition reactions to the quinone ring by a variety of nucleophiles including ammonia, primary and secondary amines, mercaptans, carbanions, and enamines giving the C-3 substituted derivatives (38) of rifamycin SV (117,120,121). Many of the derivatives show excellent antibacterial properties (109,118,122,123). The 3-cycHc amino derivatives of rifamycin SV also inhibit the polymerase of RNA tumor vimses (123,124). 

The propensity for conjugate addition is diminished with A" -3-ketones due to steric hindrance. Thus A -3-alkyl ethers, as well as the corresponding thiobenzyl ethers and enamines, are formed selectively and in good yield from A" -3-ketones in the presence of 17- and 20-ketones. 

Cross-conjugated dienones are quite inert to nucleophilic reactions at C-3, and the susceptibility of these systems to dienone-phenol rearrangement precludes the use of strong acid conditions. In spite of previous statements, A " -3-ketones do not form ketals, thioketals or enamines, and therefore no convenient protecting groups are available for this chromophore. Enol ethers are not formed by the orthoformate procedure, but preparation of A -trienol ethers from A -3-ketones has been claimed. Another route to A -trien-3-ol ethers involves conjugate addition of alcohol, enol etherification and then alcohol removal from la-alkoxy compounds. 

The addition of secondary amines to acetylenes is most applicable to the synthesis of conjugated acyclic enamines (50,171,172). Particularly the addition to acetylenic esters and sulfones has been investigated (173-177) and it appears that an initial trans addition is followed by isomerization to more stable products where the amine and functional group are in a trans orientation (178). Enamines have also been obtained by addition of secondary amines to allenes (179). 

Enamines react with acceptor-substituted alkenes (Michael acceptors) in a conjugate addition reaction for example with o ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds or nitriles such as acrylonitrile 8. With respect to the acceptor-substituted alkene the reaction is similar to a Michael addition ... 

Figure 23.8 The Stork reaction between cyclohexanone and 3-buten-2-one. Cyclohexanone is first converted into an enamine, the enamine adds to the a -unsaturated ketone in a Michael reaction, and the conjugate addition product is hydrolyzed to yield a 1,5-diketone.

The first step of the Robinson annulation is simply a Michael reaction. An enamine or an enolate ion from a jS-keto ester or /3-diketone effects a conjugate addition to an a-,/3-unsaturated ketone, yielding a 1,5-diketone. But as we saw in Section 23.6,1,5-diketones undergo intramolecular aldol condensation to yield cyclohexenones when treated with base. Thus, the final product contains a six-membered ring, and an annulation has been accomplished. An example occurs during the commercial synthesis of the steroid hormone estrone (figure 23.9). 

Scheme 2.23 provides some examples of conjugate addition reactions. Entry 1 illustrates the tendency for reaction to proceed through the more stable enolate. Entries 2 to 5 are typical examples of addition of doubly stabilized enolates to electrophilic alkenes. Entries 6 to 8 are cases of addition of nitroalkanes. Nitroalkanes are comparable in acidity to (i-ketocslcrs (see Table 1.1) and are often excellent nucleophiles for conjugate addition. Note that in Entry 8 fluoride ion is used as the base. Entry 9 is a case of adding a zinc enolate (Reformatsky reagent) to a nitroalkene. Entry 10 shows an enamine as the carbon nucleophile. All of these reactions were done under equilibrating conditions. 

Enamines also react with electrophilic alkenes to give conjugate addition products. The addition reactions of enamines of cyclohexanones show a strong preference for attack from the axial direction.319 This is anticipated on stereoelectronic grounds because the tt orbital of the enamine is the site of nucleophilicity. 

Alternatively, the enamine portion may be located in the Aralkyl chain. For instance, piperidines bearing a 7-chloro substituent yielded quinolizidines 263 through a conjugate addition of the nitrogen atom to acetylenic sulfones followed by an intramolecular alkylation (Scheme 55) <2000JOC4543>. Other cyclizations that are summarized below used as starting materials piperidine derivatives obtained by similar conjugate additions to vinyl sulfones (see Section 12.01.9.3.6). 

A variant of the Robinson annulation, where bulky amines such as pyrrolidine are used, making the conjugate addition to methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) take place at the less hindered side of two possible enamines. 

Type B enamine catalysts have been developed more recently. They include the diarylprolinol ethers (developed by the Hayashi and Jprgensen groups, e.g. 47 and its derivatives) [71-75] as well as the MacMillan imidazolidinone catalysts (e.g. 46) [76-78]. They excel in reactions where hydrogen bonding assistance is either not required or is not essential, such as a-halogenation reactions as well as some conjugate addition reactions (Scheme 12). 

Enamine nucleophiles react readily with soft conjugated electrophiles, such as a, 3-unsaturated carbonyl, nitro, and sulfonyl compounds [20-22], Both aldehydes and ketones can be used as donors (Schemes 27 and 28). These Michael-type reactions are highly useful for the construction of carbon skeletons and often the yields are very high. The problem, however, is the enantioselectivity of the process. Unlike the aldol and Mannich reactions, where even simple proline catalyst can effectively direct the addition to the C = O or C = N bond by its carboxylic acid moiety, in conjugate additions the charge develops further away from the catalyst (Scheme 26) ... 

Scheme 29 Explanation for the typical syn selectivity observed in the enamine-catalyzed conjugate addition reactions...

Domino processes can also be performed on open-chain compounds. MacMillan and co-workers demonstrated this with their own imidazolidinone catalysts. Conjugate addition of a nucleophilic heterocycle 231 to the a,(i-unsaturated enal 230 followed by a-chlorination of the resulting enamine led to the syn products 234 in very high enantioselectivities and good sytv.anti diastereoselectivities (Scheme 38) [347]. Similar domino sequences, but with different nucleophile-electrophile partners, were also reported independently by Jprgensen [348]. 

The majority of the Michael-type conjugate additions are promoted by amine-based catalysts and proceed via an enamine or iminium intermediate species. Subsequently, Jprgensen et al. [43] explored the aza-Michael addition of hydra-zones to cyclic enones catalyzed by Cinchona alkaloids. Although the reaction proceeds under pyrrolidine catalysis via iminium activation of the enone, and also with NEtj via hydrazone activation, both methods do not confer enantioselectivity to the reaction. Under a Cinchona alkaloid screen, quinine 3 was identified as an effective aza-Michael catalyst to give 92% yield and 1 3.5 er (Scheme 4). 

This product is then treated with acryloyl chloride. The initial step in this case probably involves the acylation of nitrogen on the enamine conjugate addition then completes the formation of the lactam ring (23-5). Treatment of that product with triethyl silane then reduces the ring unsaturation and cleaves the benzylic nitrogen bond on the auxiliary to yield (23-6) as the optically pure tmns isomer. Displacement of bromine with the mercapto benzthiazole (23-7) completes the synthesis of izonsteride (23-8) [25]. 

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