Alkaloids enantioselective Michael addition

Enantioselective Michael addition of thiols to enones is a useful reaction for the synthesis of sex pheromones [26] and terpenes [27]. For example, enantioselective Michael additions of thiols to 2-cyclohexenone (64) and maleic acid esters in the presence of chiral bases such as cinchona alkaloids [28, 29] and optically active amino alcohols [30, 31] have been reported. It has also been found that the enantioselective Michael addition reaction proceeds efficiently in an inclusion crystal... 

Scheme 2.10 Enantioselective Michael addition of ketones to nitroalkenes catalyzed by primary amine-sulfonamide catalysts 27a-b and by 9-epi amino cinchona alkaloid 28a.

The use of another cinchona alkaloid-derived primary amine in combination with TFA has allowed highly enantioselective Michael additions of... 

In 2009, Garcia Ruano et al. reported the synthesis of optically pure cyano tert-a ky sulfones on the basis of enantioselective Michael additions of a-substituted cyanosulfones to vinyl ketones using another cinchona alkaloid bearing a free hydroxyl group as the catalyst. As shown in Scheme 1.25, this methodology was applicable to cyclic as well as acyclic ketones, providing the... 

Acrylic esters, thioesters and A-acryloyl pyrrole have been identified by Dixon and Rigby as elfective electrophiles in the enantioselective Michael addition reaction with p-keto esters catalysed by a cinchona alkaloid bearing a bulky phenanthrene group (Scheme 1.27). High yields combined with excellent enantioselectivities of up to 96% ee were obtained in almost all cases of substrates. 

In addition, several organocatalysts other than cinchona alkaloid derivatives have been developed very recently. As an example, a chiral bicyclic guanidine was found by Tan et al. to be an excellent catalyst for enantioselective Michael additions of malonates or ethyl benzoylacetates to cyclopentenone or... 

A particularly elegant example of the build/couple/pair strategy combined with reagent-based skeletal diversity construction can be found in the solution-phase work carried out by Comer et al. (Scheme A.l) Their strategy involved the synthesis of a number of substituted p-nitrostyrenes and alkylated 1,3-dicarbonyls in the build phase that were then coupled by enantioselective Michael addition of the dicarbonyls to the p-ni-trostyrenes using a cinchona alkaloid-derived organocatalyst to give densely functionalized molecules such as 27 and 28. 

CATALYTIC ENANTIOSELECTIVE MICHAEL ADDITION OF 1,3-DICARBONYL COMPOUNDS TO CYCLIC ENONE FOR THE SYNTHESIS OF THE STRYCHNOS ALKALOIDS AND MAGNOLIONE ANALOGS... 

The asymmetric Michael addition of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds to nitrostyrene is promoted by chiral alkaloid catalysts to give the addition products in good chemical yield, but the enantioselectivity is rather low (Eq. 4.47).62... 

Catalytic enantioselective nucleophilic addition of nitroalkanes to electron-deficient alke-nes is a challenging area in organic synthesis. The use of cinchona alkaloids as chiral catalysts has been studied for many years. Asymmetric induction in the Michael addition of nitroalkanes to enones has been carried out with various chiral bases. Wynberg and coworkers have used various alkaloids and their derivatives, but the enantiomeric excess (ee) is generally low (up to 20%).199 The Michael addition of methyl vinyl ketone to 2-nitrocycloalkanes catalyzed by the cinchona alkaloid cinchonine affords adducts in high yields in up to 60% ee (Eq. 4.137).200... 

Several examples exist of the application of chiral natural N-compounds in base-catalyzed reactions. Thus, L-proline and cinchona alkaloids have been applied [35] in enantioselective aldol condensations and Michael addition. Techniques are available to heterogenize natural N-bases, such as ephedrine, by covalent binding to mesoporous ordered silica materials [36]. 

The majority of the Michael-type conjugate additions are promoted by amine-based catalysts and proceed via an enamine or iminium intermediate species. Subsequently, Jprgensen et al. [43] explored the aza-Michael addition of hydra-zones to cyclic enones catalyzed by Cinchona alkaloids. Although the reaction proceeds under pyrrolidine catalysis via iminium activation of the enone, and also with NEtj via hydrazone activation, both methods do not confer enantioselectivity to the reaction. Under a Cinchona alkaloid screen, quinine 3 was identified as an effective aza-Michael catalyst to give 92% yield and 1 3.5 er (Scheme 4). 

The scope of Michael additions with catalysts containing cyclohexane-diamine scaffolds was broadened by Li and co-workers [95]. When screening for a catalyst for the addition of phenylthiol to a,p-nnsatnrated imides, the anthors fonnd that thiourea catalyst 170 provided optimal enantioselectivities when compared to Cinchon alkaloids derivatives (Scheme 41). Electrophile scope inclnded both cyclic and acyclic substrates. Li attributed the enantioselectivity to activation of the diketone electrophiles via hydrogen-bonding to the thiourea, with simultaneous deprotonation of the thiol by the tertiary amine moiety of the diamine (170a and 170b). Based on the observed selectivity, the anthors hypothesized that the snbstrate-catalyst... 

Recently, chiral phase-transfer-catalyzed asymmetric Michael addition has received much attention, and excellent enantioselectivity (up to 99% ee) has been reported using cinchona alkaloid-derived chiral phase-transfer catalysts [40]. Among noncinchona alkaloid-derived chiral phase-transfer catalysts Shibasaki s tartrate derived C2-symmetrical two-center catalyst provided a Michael adduct with up to 82% ee [41]. 

Cinchona alkaloids and their derivatives have been reported to catalyse the Michael addition of (V-heterocycles, such as benztriazole, to nitroalkenes in moderate to high enantioselectivities (<94% ee) 15 The thiourea derivative (149) catalysed Michael addition of thioacetic acid to a range of frafts-/f-nitrostyrenes to afford RCH(SAc)- CH2NO2 (<70% ee) 16 The thiourea derivative (149) and its congeners have been identified as efficient organocatalysts for the Michael addition of a-substituted cyano-acetates RCH(CN)C02Et to vinyl sulfones CH2=C(R)S02Ph (72-96% ee) 17 ... 

Michael addition of nitromethane to chalcones can be catalysed by cinchona alkaloid-derived chiral bifunctional thiourea (142) (0.5-10 mol%) to give the corresponding products at 25-100 °C in high chemical yields and high enantioselectivity ... 

The Aspidosperma family of indole alkaloids has inspired many synthetic strategies for the construction of their pentacyclic framework of the parent compound aspidospermidine (366), since the initial clinical success of two derivatives, vinblastine (10) and vincristine, as anticancer agents. The alkaloids such as (-)-rhazinal (369) and (-)-rhazinilam (6) have been identified as novel leads for the development of new generation anticancer agents [10,11]. Bis-lactams (-)-leucunolam (370) and (-t-)-epi-leucunolam (371) have bio-genetic and structural relationships with these compounds [236]. Recently, enantioselective or racemic total syntheses of some of the these natural product were achieved. One successful synthesis was the preparation of the tricyclic ketone 365, an advanced intermediate in the synthesis of aspidospermidine (366), from pyrrole (1) (Scheme 76) [14]. The key step is the construction of the indolizidine 360, which represents the first example of the equivalent intramolecular Michael addition process [14,237,238]. The DIBAL-H mediated reduction product was subject to mesylation under the Crossland-... 

Recently, Mukaiyama and co-workers prepared cinchona alkaloid-derived chiral quaternary ammonium phenoxide-phenol complex 23 and used it as an efficient organocatalyst for the tandem Michael addition and lactonization between oc,f-unsaturated ketones and a ketene silyl acetal 24 derived from phenyl isobutyrate. This approach permits the highly enantioselective synthesis of a series of 3,4-dihydropyran-2-ones (25), as shown in Scheme 4.11 [17]. 

Benzotriazole was found to be an efficient ligand for the Cu(I) iodide-catalyzed N-arylation of imidazoles with aryl and heteroaryl halides <07TL4207>. The first enantioselective conjugate addition reaction of I //-benzotriazole with a variety of enones catalyzed by a cinchona alkaloid thiourea affords Michael adducts in good yields with moderate to good enantioselectivities has been reported <07S2576>. 

Despite the importance of the Michael addition in organic synthesis, the tandem conjugate addition/enantioselective protonation has been little explored [14] and only a few publications have involved cinchona alkaloids as bifunctional catalysts B for controlling the configuration of the chiral carbon created during protonation (Scheme 7.9). 

Pracejus and coworkers reported the first Michael addition/enantioselective protonation mediated by cinchona alkaloids [15]. The authors put a special emphasis on the requirement of using chiral P-N,N-dialkylamino alcohol to achieve significant inductions. The addition of benzyl thiol 16 on 2-phthalimidoacrylate 17 catalyzed by 5 mol% of quinidine 3 gave the best selectivity (Scheme 7.10). 

Kumar and coworkers described the Michael addition of thiophenol 13 to 2-phenylacrylates 19 using a catalytic amount of cinchona alkaloids [16]. Among the four natural alkaloids, quinine 20 and quinidine 3 afforded the best results with opposite enantioselectivity (Scheme 7.11). Methyl or isopropyl ester substrates 19a and 19b gave comparable selectivities whereas more sterically demanding esters (e.g., tBu or CH(iPr)2) gave lower optical inductions. Based on the previous considerations and a computational analysis, the authors suggested a transition state... 

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