Directed aldol reaction tandem reactions

In principle, bifunctional aldehydes should be able to engage in twofold enzymatic aldol additions to both of their acceptor carbonyls in a fashion to be classified as a tandem reaction, that is, without the need for isolation of intermediates. Depending on the specificity of the enzyme used and on the functionalization in the starting material, the isomeric constitution as well as the absolute and relative stereochemistry should be deliberately addressable. Therefore, we engaged in a program to evaluate the scope and the Hmitations of such two-directional chain elongation processes for the construction of extended poly functional molecules [36]. 

Scheme 8C.25. Tandem and two-directional aldol-type reaction.

The alkyllithium reagents to be used in tandem reactions can be prepared by direct alkylation or by an aldol reaction involving nucleophilic addition of the alkyllithium as the first step. Several complex heteroaromatic compounds, which can serve as pivotal intermediates in synthetic strategy of biologically active species, could be synthesized by this procedure. The preparation of polysubstituted pyridines has been an active research area for many years181. The synthesis of 2-alkyl- or 2-aryl-5-hydrazinopyridines 327 has never been performed directly from pyridine. The reported methods involve several steps... 

Catalytic aldol reactions are among the most useful synthetic methods for highly stereo-controlled asymmetric synthesis. In this account we discuss the recent development of a novel synthetic technique which uses tandem enzyme catalysis for the bi-directional chain elongation of simple dialdehydes and related multi-step procedures. The scope and the limitations of multiple one-pot enzymatic C-C bond formations is evaluated for the synthesis of unique and structurally complex carbohydrate-related compounds that may be regarded as metabolically stable mimetics of oligosaccharides and that are thus of interest because of their potential bioactivity. 

Various benzylic alcohols, as well as cinnamyl alcohol and cyclohexanol, were dehydrogenated using large amounts of GiO under sonication [71] or GeO [72]. Despite the high GeO loadings (200 wt%), the material acted as an aerobic oxidation catalyst, since hardly any reaction occurred under nitrogen and the material could be recycled many times. Interestingly, GiO acted as a multifunctional tandem alcohol oxidation-alkyne hydration-aldol condensation catalyst for chal-cone formation directly from phenylacetylenes and benzyl alcohols [73]. 

---