Friedel-Crafts acylation, with imines

A/ -Methoxycarbonyl-2-pyrroline undergoes Vilsmeier formylation and Friedel-Crafts acylation in the 3-position (82TL1201). In an attempt to prepare a chloropyrroline by chlorination of 2-pyrrolidone, the product (234) was obtained in 62% yield (8UOC4076). At pH 7, two molecules of 2,3-dihydropyrrole add together to give (235), thus exemplifying the dual characteristics of 2,3-dihydropyrroles as imines and enamines. The ability of pyrrolines to react with nucleophiles is central to their biosynthetic role. For example, addition of acetoacetic acid (possibly as its coenzyme A ester) to pyrroline is a key step in the biosynthesis of the alkaloid hygrine (236). 

Whereas pyrroles normally undergo substitution at the C-2 position, 1-arylsulfonylpyrroles display a tunable reactivity in Friedel-Crafts acylations, wherein substitution occurs at C-3 in the presence of "hard acids" such as aluminum chloride but mainly at C-2 when catalyzed by weaker acids <81TL4899,81TL4901>. An alternative route to 3-aroylpyrroles 38 has been introduced via irradiation of 1-acetyl- or 1-phenylsulfonylpyrrole (36) with arenethiocarboxamides <96H(43)463>. The proposed mechanism involves formation and scission of a thietane intermediate 37, followed by hydrolysis of the resultant imine. 

The Lewis acidity of lanthanide complexes has been known for a long time. It was exploited extensively in their use as NMR shift reagents, mainly Eu(fod)3. They show strong affinity toward carbonyl oxygens and, therefore, have been widely used as catalysts for cycloaddition of dienes with aldehydes [25]. Moreover, the ability of catalytic amounts of lanthanide compoimds to activate coordinating nitriles as well as imines has also been recognized [26]. In recent years lanthanide (III) complexes have demonstrated clear effectiveness in catalyzing not only hetero-Diels-Alder reactions, but also Michael, aldol, Strecker and Friedel-Crafts acylation reactions [27]. 

Condensation of the diester 22 with the methyl imine of piperonal furnished the trans-fused lactam amide 23 which was homologated to 24. Saponification and Friedel-Crafts acylation then provided the crystalline keto lactam 25 which was converted to oxysanguinarine (see Scheme 21.7). ... 

A high density of electrons associated with atoms C(3) and C(5) of 1,4-dihydropyridines and 1,4-dihydropyrimidines is also observed when these heterocycles undergo electrophilic substitutions such as Friedel-Crafts [315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320] and Vilsmeier [297, 321] reactions (Scheme 3.99). In [315] it was shown that treatment of dihydropyridines 371 with aroyl or acyl chlorides 372 in the presence of SnCl4 leads to acylation of the heterocycle at position 3 (compounds 373). Dihydropyridines 374 and dihydroazolopyrimidines 376 undergo Vilsmeier reaction with the formation of the corresponding derivatives 375 and 377. It is interesting that imine heterocycle 376 after Vilsmeier reaction exists in the enamine tautomeric form. The tautomerism of dihydroazines and factors influencing it will be discussed in detail in Sect. 3.8. 

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