Epoxidation chirality centers

Many of the reactions we ve already encountered can yield a chiral product from an achi ral starting material Epoxidation of propene for example creates a chirality center by adding oxygen to the double bond... 

Chiral and achiral Jacobsen s catalysts exhibit similar diatereomeric excesses during the diastereoselective epoxidation of R-(+)-limonene using in situ prepared oxidizing agents. Therefore, the chiral center of the substrate appears to govern the chiral induction. In contrast, the chirality of the Jacobsen s catalyst appears to be responsible for the chiral induction when commercially available oxidants were used. 

Scheme 7-16 shows that a similar synthetic route leads to the asymmetric synthesis of optically active 62. The synthesis that began from homochiral aldehyde (—)-52 used this newly discovered asymmetric epoxidation three times, 52 —> 58, 58 —> 68, and 68 —> 61, finishing the conversion from 52 to 61 by following a shortened route. The last chiral center to be built is C-27, and the addition of allyltin to the aldehyde derived from 61 proceeds with high stereoselectivity to give the chiral aliphatic segment 62. 

Another route to a methyl-branched derivative makes use of reductive cleavage of spiro epoxides ( ). The realization of this process was tested in the monosaccharide series. Hittig olefination of was used to form the exocyclic methylene compound 48. This sugar contains an inherent allyl alcohol fragmenC the chiral C-4 alcohol function of which should be idealy suited to determine the chirality of the epoxide to be formed by the Sharpless method. With tert-butvl hydroperoxide, titanium tetraisopropoxide and (-)-tartrate (for a "like mode" process) no reaction occured. After a number of attempts, the Sharpless method was abandoned and extended back to the well-established m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid epoxida-tion. The (3 )-epoxide was obtained stereospecifically in excellent yield (83%rT and this could be readily reduced to give the D-ribo compound 50. The exclusive formation of 49 is unexpected and may be associated with a strong ster chemical induction by the chiral centers at C-1, C-4, and C-5. 

Nature often uses two pathways to produce oxygenated molecules. One is oxidative fictionalization of substrates through enzymatic hydration, monohydroxylation, dihydroxylation or epoxidation. Alternatively, oxygenated compounds can be generated by C—C formation catalyzed by aldolase, transketolase, oxynitrilase and related enzymes, where chiral centers are created simultaneously without an overall change in oxidation states [78]. 

The dioxirane epoxidation of a prochrral alkene will produce an epoxide with either one new chirality center for terminal alkenes, or two for internal aUcenes. When an optically active dioxirane is nsed as the oxidant, expectedly, prochiral alkenes should be epoxi-dized asymmetrically. This attractive idea for preparative purposes was initially explored by Curci and coworkers in the very beginning of dioxirane chemistry. The optically active chiral ketones 1 and 2 were employed as the dioxirane precursors, but quite disappointing enantioselectivities were obtained. Subsequently, the glucose-derived ketone 3 was used, but unfortunately, this oxidatively labile dioxirane precursor was quickly consumed without any conversion of the aUcene . After a long pause (11 years) of activity in this challenging area, the Curci group reported work on the much more reactive ketone... 

A structurally unusual 3-blocker that uses a second molecule of itself as the substituent on nitrogen is included here in spite of the ubiquity of this class of compounds. Exhaustive hydrogenation of the chromone (13-1) leads to a reduction of both the double bond and the carbonyl group, as in the case of (11-2). The car-boxyhc acid is then reduced to an aldehyde (13-2) by means of diisobutylaluminum hydride. Reaction of that intermediate with the ylide from trimethylsulfonium iodide gives the oxirane (13-3) via the addition-displacement process discussed earlier (see Chapters 3 and 8). Treatment of an excess of that epoxide with benzylamine leads to the addition of two equivalents of that compound with each basic nitrogen (13-4). The product is then debenzylated by catalytic reduction over palladium to afford nebivolol (13-5) [16]. The presence of four chiral centers in the product predicts the existence of 16 chiral pairs. 

The synthesis of tetrahydrofurans through cyclization via epoxide ring opening has been well investigated and has been applied to the preparation of a-bisabolol oxides (69IJC1060) and linalool oxides (77H(6)1365) and by Kishi et al. in the synthesis of lasalocid A (195), where the epoxide pathway resulted in a stereospecific construction of six out of the ten chiral centers (Scheme 93) (78JA2933). 

In another development, the statin side chain en route to Atorvastatin (Lipitor , Pfizer) is synthesized via the key intermediate alkyl 3-hydroxy-4-cyanobutyrate (Figure 13.17). Instead of the currently practiced six-step route, a much more concise three-step route starts from epichlorohydrin via Cl chain length enhancement by both nucleophilic substitution of chloride and nucleophilic ring opening of the epoxide with cyanide to yield symmetric dicyanoisopropanol. Nitrilase action desymmetrizes the dinitrile intermediate with the creation of a chiral center in C3 to yield (R)-3-hydroxy-4-cyanobutyrate, which is esterified to the key intermediate ethyl (R)-3-hydroxy-4-cyanobutyrate. 

The industrial production of Crixivan (9 H2S04) took advantage of the chirality of (IS,2R)-aminoindanol to set the two central chiral centers of 9 by an efficient diastereoselective alkylation-epoxidation sequence.17 The lithium enolate of 12 reacted with allyl bromide to give 13 in 94% yield and 96 4 diastereoselective ratio. Treatment of a mixture of olefin 13 and V-chlorosuccinimide in isopropyl acetate-aqueous sodium carbonate with an aqueous solution of sodium iodide led to the desired iodohydrin in 92% yield and 97 3 diastereoselectivity. The resulting compound was converted to the epoxide 14 in quantitative yield. Epoxide opening with piperazine 15 in refluxing methanol followed by Boc-removal gave 16 in 94% yield. Finally, treatment of piperazine derivative 16 with 3-picolyl chloride in sulfuric acid afforded Indinavir sulfate in 75% yield from epoxide 14 and 56% yield for the overall process (Scheme 24.1).17-22... 

---