Aldehydes enamine activation

Although the direct reaction of a lipoyl group with the thiamin-bound enamine (active aldehyde) is generally accepted, and is supported by recent studies,3153 an alternative must be considered.315 Hexacyanoferrate (III) can replace NAD+ as an oxidant for pyruvate dehydrogenase and is also able to oxidize nonenzymatically thiamin-bound active acetaldehyde... 

FIGURE 23.36 The transaldolas nism involves attack on the snbstrat active-site lysine. Departnre of eryth leaves the reactive enamine, which aldehyde carbon of glyceraldehyde- base hydrolysis yields the second pis frnctose-6-P. 

Although the asymmetric isomerization of allylamines has been successfully accomplished by the use of a cationic rhodium(l)/BINAP complex, the corresponding reaction starting from allylic alcohols has had a limited success. In principle, the enantioselective isomerization of allylic alcohols to optically active aldehydes is more advantageous because of its high atom economy, which can eliminate the hydrolysis step of the corresponding enamines obtained by the isomerization of allylamines (Scheme 26). 

At present, one of the most successful catalysts for enamine activation has been proline (2). Proline is a cheap, widely and commercially available amino acid that can be found in both enantiomeric forms and, as such, represents a remarkable synthetic alternative to many established asymmetric catalysts. Given such attractive features, it has become the catalyst of choice for many enamine-catalyzed processes. However, various more recent studies have demonstrated that proline is not a universal catalyst for transformations that involve the a-functionalization of ketone or aldehyde carbonyls. Indeed, these studies have demonstrated that the iminium catalysts developed by MacMillan (imidazolidinones) and Jprgensen (pyrrolidines) are also highly effective for enamine activation with respect to... 

Hong and co-workers have described a formal [3-t-3] cycloaddition of a,P-unsaturated aldehydes using L-proline as the catalyst (Scheme 72) [225], Although the precise mechanism of this reaction is unclear a plausible explanation involves both iminium ion and enamine activation of the substrates and was exploited in the asymmetric synthesis of (-)-isopulegol hydrate 180 and (-)-cubebaol 181. This strategy has also been extended to the trimerisation of acrolein in the synthesis of montiporyne F [226],... 

Scheme 2.2.3.2 Reaction mechanism of PDC and BFD. C2 of the cofactor ThDP is the real active site of both enzymes. The cofactor is regenerated during the reaction cycle. Decarboxylation of 2-keto acids and carboligation of aldehydes have a common reaction intermediate (enamine-carbanion = active aldehyde ).

The reactions of y-boryl enamines with aldehydes afford (2-aminocyclopropyl)methyl alcohols in modest yields. The use of the chiral boryl derivatives leads to the optically active alcohols (equation 37)53. 

As described above, hydrolysis of the optically active enamine 3 proceeds without racemization and produces an optically active aldehyde, citronellal, with a very high optical purity (>98% ee). The optical purity of citronellal) available from natural sources is known to be no more than 80% ee [5], The present asymmetric isomerization of the allylamine 1 is utilized as the key step for the industrial production of (-)-menthol (Scheme 3.3). 

The formation of covalent substrate-catalyst adducts might occur, e.g., by single-step Lewis-acid-Lewis-base interaction or by multi-step reactions such as the formation of enamines from aldehydes and secondary amines. The catalysis of aldol reactions by formation of the donor enamine is a striking example of common mechanisms in enzymatic catalysis and organocatalysis - in class-I aldolases lysine provides the catalytically active amine group whereas typical organocatalysts for this purpose are secondary amines, the most simple being proline (Scheme 2.2). 

The process mechanism as shown in Figure 2.23 consists of an initial activation of the aldehyde (66) by the catalyst [(5)-67] with the formation of the corresponding chiral enamine, which then, selectively, adds to nitroalkene (65) in a Michael-type reaction. The following hydrolysis liberates the catalyst, which forms the iminium ion of the a,(3-unsaturated aldehyde (62) to accomplish the conjugate addition with the nitroalkane A. In the third step, another enamine activation of the intermediate B leads to an intramolecular aldol condensation via C. Finally, the hydrolysis of it returns the catalyst and releases the desired chiral tetra-substituted cyclohexene carbaldehyde (68). 

This isomerization is enantioselective when optically active BINAP is used and provides practical access to optically active aldehydes and alcohols such as L-menthol, which is a key fragrance chemical [297—299], The proposed mechanism involves amine, iminium, and enamine as complex intermediates [300], Extension of this olefin isomerization is realized in the isomerization of an alkyne to a conjugated diene (Scheme 1-47) [301], High chemoselectivity is achieved when Pd(OAc)2 or [Pd2(dba)3]/HOAc, in the presence of phosphine, is used as catalyst (Table 1-14). The phosphine of choice is dppb although dppf could give a similar yield. 

Optically active aldehydes are desirable synthetic precursors for the construction of chiral carbon skeltones in organic synthesis. Several methods had been devised for the synthesis of optically active aldehydes employing chiral enamines chiral imines or chiral hydrazone however, little was known about the asymmetric synthesis of chiral aldehyde having a functional group in the same molecule... 

This asymmetric Mannich reaction could also proceed by an enamine pathway because nucleophilic addition of the in situ-generated enamine would be faster to an imine than to an aldehyde. As shown in the Fig. 12.59, the reaction starts with enamine 34 activation of the cyclohexanone by the proline anion and an electrostatic interaction with the imidazolium moiety of the catalyst In a second pre-equilibrium, the aldehyde and aniline produce an imine. Then enamine-activated 35 reacts with the imine to form 35 via transition state A. The last step is a dehydration reaction to afford the corresponding product. The catalyst is regenerated in the subsequent step. 

The synthesis can be completed either by activating aldehyde (9) as an enamine and eliminating to give (10) before combining the two in a Robinson annelation (synthesis 2), or by the lazy man s method of simply using no control at all —with good results in this case (synthesis 3). 

As has already been mentioned, the low reactivity of enamine nucleophiles needs a highly electrophilic Michael acceptor for the reaction to proceed with good conversions in an acceptable time. In this context, the Michael reaction of aldehydes and ketones with nitroalkenes can be regarded as one of the most studied transformations in which the enamine activation concept has been applied. This reaction furnishes highly functionalized adducts with remarkable potential in organic synthesis, due to the synthetic versatility of the nitro group and the presence of the carbonyl moiety from the donor reagent. 

The diflferent reactivity of aldehydes and ketones toward condensation with amines is also a differentiating element when using enals or enones as Michael donors under iminium activation. As in the enamine activation case, working with a,p-unsaturated aldehydes usually leads to faster reactions or better conversions but the same reaction with enones in many cases turns out to be a very slow or even non-existent reaction. Stereochemical control is also more problematic when a,p-unsaturated ketones are employed because the presence... 

It has to be pointed out that simple enolizable aldehydes and ketones, which are not acidic enough compounds to be directly used as pro-nucleophiles in this context, can nevertheless be employed as Michael donors in the reaction with enals or enones, which have been previously activated as the corresponding iminium ion, but their use requires prior activation via enamine activation. In these cases, it is usually proposed that the amine catalyst is involved in a dual activation profile interacting with both the Michael donor and the acceptor, although the enamine activation of the pro-nucleophile is mandatory for the reaction to occur, the activation of the acceptor being of less relevance in most cases. For these reasons, this chemistry has been covered in Chapter 2. 

An interesting example of enamine activation of aldehydes by the L,L-prolylprolinol 9/3-fluoro benzoic acid system, has been illustrated by Gong and coworkers, in a tandem Michael/acetalisation process starting from 2-(2-nitrovinyl)phenols (Scheme 7.17). ... 

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