Formation of a-Hydroxy Ketones

The employment of trityl trifluoroborate is particularly interesting. This reagent is able to introduce trityl groups on both primary and secondary alcohols54 and to selectively oxidize secondary trityl ethers to ketones in the presence of primary trityl ethers.55 Thus, treatment of diols with trityl trifluoroborate leads to tritylation of both alcohols followed by oxidation of the secondary trityl ether, resulting in the formation of a ketone possessing a trityl-protected primary alcohol. A work-up by mild acidic hydrolysis provides the deprotection of the primary trityl ether and formation of a hydroxy ketone.54... 

Aromatic aldehydes form a condensation product when heated with a cyanide ion dissolved in an alcohol-water solution. This condensation leads to the formation of a hydroxy ketones. 

The different steps which are relevant for thiamine-catalyzed decarboxylation and the formation of a-hydroxy ketones are summarized in Scheme 3. 

Scheme 3. Reaction path of enzymatic pyruvate decarboxylation and formation of a-hydroxy ketones...

Enantiopure, bifunctional acyloins (a-hydroxy ketones) are versatile intermediates in natural product synthesis (also see Sect. 2.3, Fig. 11). In nature, the formation of a-hydroxy ketones is efficiently catalyzed by thiamine diphosphate-dependent enzymes transketolases, decarboxylases, and other lyases, such as BALs. A great portfolio of biotransformations, especially with benzaldehyde derivatives as starting materials, were realized [204]. 

The a-keto acid decarboxylases such as pyruvate (E.C. 4.1.1.1) and benzoyl formate (E.C. 4.1.1.7) decarboxylases are a thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP)-dependent group of enzymes, which in addition to nonoxidatively decarboxylating their substrates, catalyze a carboligation reaction forming a C-C bond leading to the formation of a-hydroxy ketones.269-270 The hydroxy ketone (R)-phenylacetylcarbinol (55), a precursor to L-ephedrine (56), has been synthesized with pyruvate decarboxylase (Scheme 19.35). BASF scientists have made mutations in the pyruvate decarboxylase from Zymomonas mobilis to make the enzyme more resistant than the wild-type enzyme to inactivation by acetaldehyde for the preparation of chiral phenylacetylcarbinols.271... 

The biogenesis of solerone 1 and related compounds was successfully rationalized by biomimetic model reactions. As key step we established the pyruvate decarboxylase catalyzed acyloin condensation of pyruvic acid with ethyl 4-oxobutanoate 4 or ethyl 2-oxoglutarate 3 with acetaldehyde. The importance of the ethyl ester function in 3 and 4 serving as substrates for the enzymatic formation of a-hydroxy ketones 5 and 6 was demonstrated. The identification of six yet unknown sherry compounds including acyloins 5 and 6, which have been synthesized for the first time, confirmed the relevance of the biosynthetic pathway. Application of MDGC-MS allowed the enantiodifferentiation of a-ketols and related lactones in complex sherry samples and disclosed details of their biogenetic relationship. 

TPP-mediated formation of a-hydroxy ketones may or may not involve a decarboxylation step. An example for the former type is the reaction catalyzed by acetolactate synthetase (equation 20). This is a biosynthetically important reaction as acetolactate is the precursor... 

The most systematically investigated acyl anion equivalents have been the IMS ethers of aromatic and heteroaromatic aldehyde cyanohydrins, TBDMS-protected cyanohydrins, - benzoyl-protected cyanohydrins, alkoxycaibonyl-protected cyanohydrins, THP-protected cyanohydrins, ethoxyethyl-protect cyanohydrins, a-(dialkylamino)nitriles, cyanophosphates, diethyl l-(trimethylsiloxy)-phenyimethyl phosphonate and dithioacetals. Deprotonation di these masked acyl anions under the action of strong basie, usually LDA, followed by treatment with a wide varies of electrophiles is of great synthetic value. If the electrophUe is another aldehyde, a-hydroxy ketones or benzoins are formed. More recently, the acyl caibanion equivalents formed by electroreduction of oxazolium salts were found to be useful for the formation of ketones, aldehydes or a-hydroxy ketones (Scheme 4). a-Methoxyvinyl-lithium also can act as an acyl anion equivalent and can be used for the formation of a-hydroxy ketones, a-diketones, ketones, y-diketones and silyl ketones. - - ... 

The nucleophilic acylation of aldehydes is a short and efficient pathway to 1,2-bifunctionalized building blocks. This reaction type is extremely valuable, since it allows the catalytic formation of a-hydroxy ketones, which are important synthetic intermediates in organic chemistry. 

This reaction was first reported by Bouveault and Blanc in 1903, and was further extended by Bouveault and Locquin. It is the synthesis of symmetrical a-hydroxy ketones via the reductive condensation of esters in an inert solvent in the presence of sodium. Since symmetrical a-hydroxy ketones, the aliphatic analogs of benzoins, are generally known as acyloins, the formation of a-hydroxy ketones from esters is simply referred to as acyloin condensation. In a few cases, it is also referred to as acyloin reaction." For the individual acyloin, the name is derived by adding the suffix oin to the stem name of corresponding acid, e.g., acetoin prepared from acetate. The most common method used to make acyloin is the reductive condensation of aliphatic esters with sodium in inert solvents, such as ether, xylene or even in liquid NH3 The yield of this reaction can be greatly improved when trimethylchlorosilane presents." " Intromolecular acyloin condensation from aliphatic diesters affords cyclic ketones of different ring sizes. 

Acid-catalyzed oxidation of epoxides with HBp4-OMe2/ DMSO results in the formation of a-hydroxy ketones (eq 6). This procedure in an acidic medium complements the a-hydroxylation of ketone enolates under strongly basic conditions. 

Treatment of a-hydroxy-ketones or -aldehydes with ammonium acetate (65BSF3476, 68BSF4970) results in the formation of dihydropyrazines, presumably by direct amination of the hydroxyketone followed by self-condensation (79AJC1281). Low yields of pyrazines have been noted in the electrolysis of ketones in admixture with KI and ammonia, and again it appears probable that the a-aminoketone derived by way of the a-iodoketone is the intermediate (69CI(L)237>. 

Nitrile oxides are usually prepared via halogenation and dehydrohalogenation of aldoximes [11] or via dehydration of primary nitro alkanes (Scheme 1) [12]. However, it is important to note that nitrile oxides are relatively unstable and are prone to dimerization or polymerization, especially upon heating. 1,3-Dipolar cycioaddition of a nitrile oxide with a suitable olefin generates an isoxazoline ring which is a versatile synthetic intermediate in that it provides easy access to y-amino alcohols, )5-hydroxy ketones, -hydroxy nitriles, unsaturated oximes, and a host of other multifunctional molecules (Scheme 1) [5a]. Particularly for the formation of )5-hydroxy ketones, nitrile oxide-olefin cycioaddition serve as an alternative to the Aldol reaction. 

Palladium-catalyzed bis-silylation of methyl vinyl ketone proceeds in a 1,4-fashion, leading to the formation of a silyl enol ether (Equation (47)).121 1,4-Bis-silylation of a wide variety of enones bearing /3-substituents has become possible by the use of unsymmetrical disilanes, such as 1,1-dichloro-l-phenyltrimethyldisilane and 1,1,1-trichloro-trimethyldisilane (Scheme 28).129 The trimethylsilyl enol ethers obtained by the 1,4-bis-silylation are treated with methyllithium, generating lithium enolates, which in turn are reacted with electrophiles. The a-substituted-/3-silyl ketones, thus obtained, are subjected to Tamao oxidation conditions, leading to the formation of /3-hydroxy ketones. This 1,4-bis-silylation reaction has been extended to the asymmetric synthesis of optically active /3-hydroxy ketones (Scheme 29).130 The key to the success of the asymmetric bis-silylation is to use BINAP as the chiral ligand on palladium. Enantiomeric excesses ranging from 74% to 92% have been attained in the 1,4-bis-silylation. 

A Et2Zn-(5, S)-linked-BINOL (21) complex has been found suitable for chemos-elective enolate formation from a hydroxy ketone in the presence of isomerizable aliphatic iV-diphenylphosphinoylimines.103 The reaction proceeded smoothly and /9- alkyl-yS-amino-a-hydroxy ketones were obtained in good yield and high enantioselectivity (up to 99% ee). A titanium complex derived from 3-(3,5-diphenylphenyl)-BINOL (22) has exhibited an enhanced catalytic activity in the asymmetric alkylation of aldehydes, allowing the reduction of the catalyst amount to less than 1 mol% without deterioration in enantioselectivity.104... 

Various biotransformations concerning the decarboxylation of a-keto acids and the formation of ot-hydroxy ketones with different aldehydes as cosubstrates have been performed with either whole cell-systems, mainly fermenting yeast [116,143-151], or isolated enzymes from wheat germ [27,33,120,152], yeast... 

A general synthesis of a-hydroxy esters is based on 2-ethylthio-l,3-benzodithiole which serves as a methoxycarbonyl anion equivalent. Thus reaction of the lithium compound (216) with ketones followed by treatment with mercury perchlorate in methanol leads to the formation of a-hydroxy acid derivatives (217) (81SC209). 

Quinones, typical of unsaturated ketones, undergo base-catalysed epoxidation The epoxy ketone may then rearrange with the formation of a hydroxy quinone. Quinones may also act as dienophiles in the Diels-AIder reaction. This can be a useful way of constructing polycyclic ring systems (Scheme 3.54). 

The mechanistic model, proposed by Breslow, has been extensively discussed [149]. The core of the benzoin reaction is the polarity reversal (umpolung) of the carbonyl, initiated by nucleophihc attack of NHC to the aldehyde yielding an acyl anion equivalent that triggers the carbon-carbon bond formation. The a-hydroxy ketone results from the addition of the acyl anion equivalent to another aldehyde (Scheme 16.21). 

Ethoxycarbonylhydrazones of a-hydroxy ketones readily cyclize under basic conditions to 3//-l,3,4-oxadiazin-2(6/f)-ones, e.g. formation of 2.35... 

Formation of p-hydroxy ketones via reaction of silyl enol ethers or ketene silyl acetals with aldehydes in presence of a Lewis acid, such as titanium tetrachloride, tin tetrachloride or boron trifluoride etherate ... 

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