Epoxide opening with hydride

To establish the secondary alcohol of 13 and so of 3, the more electron rich alkene of 12 was selectively epoxidized, from the more open face. Diaxial opening with hydride then gave 13. 

The configurations assigned to (8) and (9) were established by comparison with the products resulting from epoxidation of 3-methyl-5a-cholest-2-ene followed by reduction with lithium aluminum hydride to the alcohol (9). The usual /ra 5-diaxial epoxide opening requires that the hydroxyl group, formed by reduction, is axial as shown in (9). 

Key steps, as shown in Scheme 4-15, involve the formation of a urethane intermediate 37 by treating epoxide 36 with methyl isocyanate in the presence of sodium hydride. Intramolecular A-nucleophilic ring opening of oxirane affords oxazolidine 38. Subsequent treatment furnishes product 34. 

In connection with the synthetic work directed towards the total synthesis of polyene macrolide antibiotics -such as amphotericin B (i)- Sharpless and Masamune [1] on one hand, and Nicolaou and Uenishi on the other [2], have developed alternative methods for the enantioselective synthesis of 1,3-diols and, in general, 1, 3, 5...(2n + 1) polyols. One of these methods is based on the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols [3] and regioselective reductive ring opening of epoxides by metal hydrides, such as Red-Al and DIBAL. The second method uses available monosaccharides from the "chiral pool" [4], such as D-glucose. 

Ascarylose (94) and the (35) deuterium-labeled ascarylose were prepared starting from methyl a-L-rhamnopyranoside via the 2,3-anhydro sugar 120 (Scheme 34).204 Opening of the epoxide ring with lithium aluminum hydride in THF led selectively to the 3-deoxy derivative. If reduction was performed with lithium aluminum deuteride, the methyl (3S)-[32H]ascaryloside (3S)-[32H]119 was obtained. 

The compound (70) by epoxide ring-opening with hydrogen fluoride, followed by photocatalysed addition of acetylene to the A16-bond and lithium aluminium hydride reduction, gave (71). Protection of the 1,2-diol system in (71) as the acetonide followed by oxidation, dehydration, and regeneration of the diol grouping produced... 

The diols (97) from asymmetric dil droxylation are easily converted to cyclic sii e esters (98) and thence to cyclic sulfate esters (99).This two-step process, reaction of the diol (97) with thionyl chloride followed by ruthenium tetroxide catalyzed oxidation, can be done in one pot if desired and transforms the relatively unreactive diol into an epoxide mimic, ue. the 1,2-cyclic sulfate (99), which is an excellent electrophile. A survey of reactions shows that cyclic sulfates can be opened by hydride, azide, fluoride, thiocyanide, carboxylate and nitrate ions. Benzylmagnesium chloride and thie anion of dimethyl malonate can also be used to open the cyclic sulfates. Opening by a nucleophile leads to formation of an intermediate 3-sidfate aiuon (100) which is easily hydrolyzed to a -hydroxy compound (101). Conditions for cat ytic acid hydrolysis have been developed that allow for selective removal of the sulfate ester in the presence of other acid sensitive groups such as acetals, ketals and silyl ethers. 

In the presence of Boron Trifluoride Etherate, NaBH3CN reduces epoxides to alcohols with attack of hydride at the site best able to accommodate a carbocation. Epoxide opening occurs primarily anti (eq 29). Acetals are also reduced to ethers by NaBH3CN in acetic media (eq 30). ... 

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