Grignard synthesis of an acid

Chiral butenolides are valuable synthons towards y-butyrolactone natural products [37] and have also been successfully applied to the synthesis of paraconic acids. The lactone 91, readily available from the hydroxyamide (rac)-90 by enzymatic resolution [38] followed by iodolactonization, proved to be an especially versatile key intermediate. Copper(I)-catalyzed cross coupling reactions with Grignard reagents allowed the direct introduction of alkyl side chains, as depicted in 92a and 92b (Scheme 13) [39, 40]. Further... 

The 5(2H)-oxazolones (213) present two sites, C(4) and C(5), to nucleophilic attack they usually react at the latter. The benzylidene derivative (214), the most thoroughly studied member of this class, possesses an additional electrophilic centre at the exocyclic carbon atom. However, alkaline hydrolysis of this compound affords phenylacetamide and benzoylformic acid by acyl-oxygen fission (equation 50). a-Keto acids are also obtained when 2-trifluoromethyl-5(4//)-oxazolones are hydrolyzed, the reaction involving preliminary isomerization to a 5(2//)-oxazolone. The example shown in equation (51) represents the first non-enzymatic synthesis of an optically active a-keto acid. An instance of nucleophilic attack at C(4) of a 5(2//)-oxazolone is the formation of the oxazolidinone (215) in a Grignard reaction (equation 52). However, the typical behaviour of unsaturated pseudooxazolones like (214) is conjugate addition of a nucleophile, followed by further transformations of the resulting 5(4F/)-oxazoIones. This is illustrated by the reaction of compound (214) with benzene in the presence of aluminum chloride to yield, after aqueous work-up, the acylamino acid (216 equation 53). 

It often happens, particularly during the synthesis of complex molecules, that one functional group in a molecule interferes with an intended reaction on a second functional group elsewhere in the same molecule. For example, we saw earlier in this chapter that a Grignard reagent can t be prepared from a halo alcohol because the C-Mg bond is not compatible witb i the presence of an acidic -OH group in the same molecule. 

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