Diastereoselectivity ester, with halides

Early work on the asymmetric Darzens reaction involved the condensation of aromatic aldehydes with phenacyl halides in the presence of a catalytic amount of bovine serum albumin. The reaction gave the corresponding epoxyketone with up to 62% ee.67 Ohkata et al.68 reported the asymmetric Darzens reaction of symmetric and dissymmetric ketones with (-)-8-phenylmenthyl a-chloroacetate as examples of a reagent-controlled asymmetric reaction (Scheme 8-29). When this (-)-8-phenyl menthol derivative was employed as a chiral auxiliary, Darzens reactions of acetone, pentan-3-one, cyclopentanone, cyclohexanone, or benzophenone with 86 in the presence of t-BuOK provided dia-stereomers of (2J ,3J )-glycidic ester 87 with diastereoselectivity ranging from 77% to 96%. 

Aldol Reactions. Pseudoephedrine amide enolates have been shown to undergo highly diastereoselective aldol addition reactions, providing enantiomerically enriched p-hydroxy acids, esters, ketones, and their derivatives (Table 11). The optimized procedure for the reaction requires enolization of the pseudoephedrine amide substrate with LDA followed by transmeta-lation with 2 equiv of ZrCp2Cl2 at —78°C and addition of the aldehyde electrophile at — 105°C. It is noteworthy that the reaction did not require the addition of lithium chloride to favor product formation as is necessary in many other pseudoephedrine amide enolate alkylation reactions. The stereochemistry of the alkylation is the same as that observed with alkyl halides and the formation of the 2, i-syn aldol adduct is favored. The tendency of zirconium enolates to form syn aldol products has been previously reported. The p-hydroxy amide products obtained can be readily transformed into the corresponding acids, esters, and ketones as reported with other alkylated pseudoephedrine amides. An asymmetric aldol reaction between an (S,S)-(+)-pseudoephe-drine-based arylacetamide and paraformaldehyde has been used to prepare enantiomerically pure isoflavanones. ... 

The titanium enolate of phenylalanine-derived oxazolidinone (128) reacts with a variety of other electrophiles, including alkyl halides, ortho esters and acetals, with high diastereoselectivity <90JA8215>. The lithium enolate of (128) reacts with diphenyldisulfide to give 2-phenylthio aldehydes or alcohols after reduction with Red-Al or LiBH4, respectively (Scheme 55) <94TL3991>. 

Direct alkylation of the enolate of 77a R = cyclopentyl with the alkyl halide 78 was not very diastereoselective so an alternative route was used to allow equilibration to the more stable isomer.11 Carboxylation of the enolate gave 79a and alkylation of this malonate gave a good yield of 80. The benzyl esters were cleaved by hydrogenation and the malonate decarboxylated to give the required anti isomer of 81 in a 4 1 ratio with its syn diastereoisomer. Conversion into Trocade is straightforward. 

Enolate Arylation Reactions. The direct coupling of aryl halides with enolates (or enolate equivalents) of ketones, esters, and amides is now well established. Malonic esters, cyanoacetates, and malononitrile can be arylated upon treatment with aryl halides in the presence of Pd(dba)2 and electron-rich phosphines or N-heterocyclic carbenes. Carbene ligands have also proven effective in promoting the a-arylation of protected amino acids. As a caveat to the use of Pd(dba)2, the arylation of azlactones in the presence of this palladium source and phosphines was less efficient than that with Pd(OAc)2. The dba ligands were found to react with azlactone substrates to form catalytically inactive palladium complexes. Diastereoselective enolate arylation has been achieved through the use of chiral auxiliaries appended to preformed enol silyl ethers (eq 23). The role of the zinc additive is not clear, however, it appears that discrete zinc enolates are not involved. 

---