Cornforth reaction

The ready reduction of iodohydrins is utilized in the Cornforth reaction for preparing olefins from epoxides. Here the opening and reduction are carried out in one step by treatment of the epoxide, in an acetic acid-sodium acetate buffer, with sodium iodide and zinc. A less common use of iodohy-drin reduction is illustrated in the synthesis of the diene (127) ... 

Although oxazole and its alkyl and aryl derivatives are thermally stable to high temperatures, the introduction of functionalized substituents can lead to reaction at lower temperature. The Cornforth rearrangement, discussed in <84CHEC-I(6)177>, is one example. An application of the Cornforth reaction is the conversion of 4-aminothiocarbonyl-5-ethoxyoxazoles (33) to 5-aminothiazoles (34)... 

J. W. Cornforth (Sussex) stereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions. 

The Cornforth rearrangement involves the thermal interconversion of 4-carbonyl substituted oxazoles, with exchange between the C-C-O side-chain and the C-C-O fragment of the oxazole ring. These reactions generally involve compounds where a heteroatom (-OR, -SR, -Cl) is attached to the 5-position (R2) of the starting oxazole. 

The isolation in poor yield of 2,5,5-triphenyl-4(5f )-oxazolone (82) by reaction of benzilic acid with benzonitrile in concentrated sulfuric acid was claimed by Japp and Findlay. Cornforth, however, suggested that the reactions of this product, m.p. 136°, could be accounted for more satisfactorily by the isomeric 5(4i ) structure 83. 

Julia and Paris described an olefin synthesis, based on the use of a sulphonyl group which directs the formation of a carbon-carbon bond. Subsequent reductive elimination with sodium amalgam leads to the alkene, as outlined in equation (50). The reaction sequence is similar in principle to an olefin synthesis first developed by Cornforth The yields of all steps are generally above 80%. 

The method described for the preparation of 4-methoxycarbonyl-2-methyl-1,3-oxazole is that of Cornforth, and is widely applicable to the synthesis of 2-substituted 1,3-oxazole-4-carboxylates. The appropriate imidate hydrochloride required for step A is obtained from the reaction of a nitrile with an alcohol in the presence of hydrochloric add (eq. 1 ). A different synthesis of 2-substituted 1,3-oxazole-4-carboxylates employing rhodium-catalyzed heterocycloaddition of a diazomalonate to a nitrile has been described in Organic Syntheses by Helquist, but appears to be less general than the present route. 

Quite independently of Cornforth s efforts, a similar approach was designed and executed by Stevens and coworkers (75JA5940, 76T1599). The isoxazoles were synthesized by one of the three routes outlined in Scheme 25, in which primary nitro compounds are transformed into nitrile oxides by dehydration with either phosphoryl chloride or phenyl isocyanate, or else the same oxides were formed by dehydrogenation with LTA (syn product) or NBS (syn and anti). Reaction of the unstable nitrile oxides in situ with an appropriately substituted alkyne then afforded the isoxazole (294). 

John W. Cornforth and Vladimir Prelog Chemistry Stereochemistry of organic molecules and of enzymatic reactions... 

Further developments are shown in Figure 4. On the basis that glucosamine reacted with pyruvic acid in the presence of alkali to yield pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid, in 1% yield, Gottschalk (21) proposed that sialic acid was formed by an aldol condensation reaction between N-ace-tylglucosamine and pyruvic acid. Kuhn and Brossmer (15) and Zilliken and Glick (22) showed that the reverse reaction also took place under alkaline conditions. Cornforth, Firth, and Gottschalk (23) synthesized crystalline N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA) from N-acetylglucosamine and oxaloacetic acid (pH 11, 20°C). Under conditions less subject to misinterpretation, Heimer and Meyer (24) found that Vibrio cholerae enzymes cleaved NANA into an N-acetylhexosamine and pyruvic acid. 

John Warcup Cornforth (1917-), Australian-English chemist, receives the Nobel Prize for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reaction. Vladimir Prelog (1906- ), Croatian-Swiss chemist, also receives the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. 

The 2-aryloxazoles have also been synthesized under microwave activation by the direct Stille and Suzuki cross-coupling reactions of 1,3-oxazoline (OXT) [17]. Nolt et al. [18] utilized the microwave-assisted Cornforth rearrangements for the preparation of substituted 5-amino-oxazole-4-carboxylate (v). 

The new elimination reaction may be related to the Cornforth procedure for conversion of epoxides to olefins (1, 881, 1116, 1279). 

In the laboratory of D.R. Williams, a carbanion methodology for the alkylations and acylations of substituted oxazoles was investigated. The study showed that the monoalkylation of the dianion generated from 2-(5-oxazolyl)-1,3-dithiane exclusively led to the substitution of the carbon adjacent to sulfur. However, acylation reactions of the dianion afforded 4,5-disubstituted oxazoles. These new products presumably arose from carbonyinitrile ylide intermediates, which were generated by the selective C-acylation of a ring-opened dianion tautomer. This is the first example of a base-induced, low-temperature Cornforth rearrangement. 

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