Hydroxy acids Potassium hydride

The well-known reduction of carbonyl groups to alcohols has been refined in recent studies to render the reaction more regioselective and more stereoselective Per-fluorodiketones are reduced by lithium aluminum hydride to the corresponding diols, but the use of potassium or sodium borohydride allows isolation of the ketoalcohol Similarly, a perfluoroketo acid fluonde yields diol with lithium aluminum hydnde, but the related hydroxy acid is obtainable with potassium borohydnde [i f] (equations 46 and 47)... 

The simplest way of macrolactonization is the use of acid or base catalysis so that after the ring closure no tedious separation of the lactone from auxiliary by-products is required. However, there are only very few such examples. The 16-membered macrolide ring of milbemycin 3 is closed very efficiently by simply treating the hydroxy ester (349) with potassium hydride. OH deprotonation induces ring formation with retention of configuration to (350 equation 125). 

Racemic 2-hydroxy-1,2-diphenylethanone (benzoin) is deprotonated by potassium hydride to give the enediolate, which can be rapidly reprotonated to the enediol by (27 ,3R)-dipivaloyltartaric acid. (S)-Benzoin (2) of 80% ee is formed very slowly from the enediol, whereas the latter is rapidly oxidized to diphenylethanedione (1) in the presence of air148. 

The oxidation of manool has been re-examined with the aim of producing ambergris-type perfumes. Oxidation with potassium permanganate afforded the known s methyl ketone (6), the diether (7), and at 40 °C the lactone (8). Sodium dichromate gave the aldehyde (9) as a mixture of E- and Z-isomers. Further oxidation of the methyl ketone with hypobromite gave an a-hydroxy-acid (10) and an ether (11) which was also obtained from manoyl oxide. Oxidation of the ketone with per-acid gave an acetoxy-epoxide which on reduction with lithium aluminium hydride afforded a diol. This was converted into an odoriferous ether (12). The ready formation of 5- and 6-membered-ring ethers of this type is a characteristic feature of this area of diterpenoid chemistry. 

The purification of diethyl ether (see Chapter 4) is typical of liquid ethers. The most common contaminants are the alcohols or hydroxy compounds from which the ethers are prepared, their oxidation products (e.g. aldehydes), peroxides and water. Peroxides, aldehydes and alcohols can be removed by shaking with alkaline potassium permanganate solution for several hours, followed by washing with water, concentrated sulfuric acid [CARE], then water. After drying with calcium chloride, the ether is distilled. It is then dried with sodium or with lithium aluminium hydride, redistilled and given a final fractional distillation. The drying process should be repeated if necessary. 

A convenient method to affect the oxidation p- to nitrogen in piperidines is based on the anodic oxidation of N-carboalkoxy piperidines (Scheme 35). The electrochemical oxidation of piperidine (152) in the presence of acetic acid and potassium acetate, for example, afforded a mixture of isomeric 2-hydroxy-3-acetoxypiperidines (153) in a combined yield of 93%, following an aqueous workup [61]. Reduction with sodium boro-hydride severed the C-OH bond. Treatment with acid and then base completed a synthesis of pseudoconhydrine (154). 

Reduction of ketones. Reduction of ketones with metals in an alcohol is one of the earliest methods for effecting reduction of ketones, and is still useful since it can proceed with stereoselectivity opposite to that obtained with metal hydrides.1 An example is the reduction of the 3a-hydroxy-7-ketocholanic acid 1 to the diols 2 and 3. The former, ursodesoxycholic acid, a rare bile acid found in bear bile, is used in medicine for dissolution of gallstones. The stereochemistry is strongly dependent on the nature of the reducing agent (equation I).2 Sodium dithionite and sodium borohydride reductions result mainly in the 7a-alcohol, whereas reductions with sodium or potassium in an alcohol favor reduction to the 7p-alcohol. More recently3 reduction of 1 to 2 and 3 in the ratio 96 4 has been achieved with K, Rb, and Cs in f-amyl alcohol. Almost the same stereoselectivity can be obtained by addition of potassium, rubidium, or cesium salts to reductions of sodium in t-amyl alcohol. This cation effect has not been observed previously. 

The oxidation of 1-hydroxy-2,3,4,5-tetraphenylpyrrole in benzene by lead(lV) dioxide (68BSF4679) gave the radical 3 which was reduced back to the hydroxypyrrole by lithium aluminum hydride. Photosensitized oxidation gave the peroxynitrone 4, which was reduced by potassium iodide in acetic acid to 5 (68BSF4679). ALPhenylmaleimide reacts at room temperature with 1-hydroxypyrrole to give the Diels-Alder-type adduct 6,... 

---