Enamide cyclizations, application in alkaloid synthesis

Enamide cyclizations, application in alkaloid synthesis, 22, 189 (1983) Enzymatic transformation of alkaloids, microbial and in vitro, 18, 323 (1981) Ephedra bases, 3, 339 (1933)... 

Chapter 4. Application of Enamide Cyclizations in Alkaloid Synthesis Ichiya Ninomiya and Takeaki Naito... 

One of the major areas of research in enamide chemistry has been the application of enamide cyclization to the synthesis of natural alkaloids and related heterocyclic compounds. Ever since Ninomiya and co-workers discovered nonoxidative photocyclization of the A-benzoylenamine-type ena-mides in 1969 (9), several types of alkaloids have been synthesized, starting from enamides of rather simple structures, by applying enamide cyclization under both photochemical and thermal conditions. 

In this chapter, we first summarize more or less basic works on the synthesis of the common and basic skeletons of various types of natural alkaloids, aiming at their application to total synthesis, and also those works that seem applicable to the above syntheses, and then collected works on total syntheses of alkaloids via the route involving enamide cyclization. 

Novel synthetic applications of the photocyclization of enamides have been reported. Preparation of the fused quinolone (23) from the enaraide (24) was achieved by photocyclization and subsequent elimination of a suitably positioned methoxyl group Reductive photocyclization of enamides, usually carried out in the presence of sodium borohydride, is of particular value in the synthesis of alkaloids. Cyclization of the enamide (25) to the... 

---