Hydroxy dithioketals

Scheme 3. Construction of didehydrooxocane systems by the hydroxy dithioketal cyclization.

It is important to emphasize that the hydroxy dithioketal cyclization can be conducted under mild reaction conditions and can be successfully applied to a variety of substrates.15 However, the utility of this method for the synthesis of didehydrooxocane-contain-ing natural products requires the diastereoselective, reductive removal of the ethylthio group. Gratifyingly, treatment of 13 with triphenyltin hydride and a catalytic amount of the radical initiator, azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN), accomplishes a homolytic cleavage of the C-S bond and furnishes didehydrooxocane 14 in diastereo-merically pure form (95 % yield), after hydrogen atom transfer. 

Cyclization of hydroxy dithioketals. Nicolaou et al.1 have used this reaction for construction of oxocenes. The most satisfactory method involves activation of the sulfur of the starting material (1) with AgC104 to produce an oxocene derivative (2), followed by C-S cleavage. This second step can be effected with (C6H5)3SnH (AIBN) or by oxidation to the corresponding sulfoxide or sulfone, which then is cleaved with... 

In the synthetic studies of the marine natural products brevetoxins A and B, Nicolaou and coworkers [157] developed a highly efficient cyclization reaction of hydroxy dithioketals leading to oxocenes. As shown in Scheme 88, exposure of the hydroxy dithioketal 261 to 1.1 equiv of AT-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) in CH3CN in the presence of 2 equiv of 2,6-lutidine, 1.1 equiv of AgNOj, molecular sieves and silica gel at 25 °C for 5 min led to the oxocene 262 in 95% yield. 

Schemes 2.3a-c outline the retro-synthetic production of BTX B (1). The final approach to PbTx-2 involved separate assembly of the ABCDEFG and UK ring systems 4 and 5, their coupling, and final elaboration to the end. The didehydrooxocane ring in BTX B (ring H) was thus designated as the final ring to be constructed. Retro-synthetic cleavage of the indicated C-0 bond in 1 and removal of the terminal electrophilic groupings reveal hydroxy dithioketal 3 as a plausible precursor. Tricyclic aldehyde 4 and heptacyclic phosphonium salt 5 can thus be defined as potential precursors to 3. The reliable and usually stereoselective Wittig reaction would be employed to accomplish the union of compounds 4 and 5 (Scheme 2.3a). Tricyclic aldehyde 4 was traced retro-synthetically to D-mannose 10.

Hydroxy dithioketal cyclization Construction of didehydrooxocane systems... 

Stereoselective hydrogen transfer reactions on oxacyclic radical intermediates are useful as shown in the synthesis of lauthisan (32) [126]. A key step in the total synthesis of brevetoxin B by Nicolaou [127] (Scheme 65) features conversion of the hydroxy dithioketal 189 into the oxoeene system 190 via cyclic hemithioketal formation and stereoselective radical-mediated desulfurization. More recently, Tachi-bana employed the same reaction sequence in the partial synthesis of ciguatoxin ]128]. 

Nicolaou, K.C. et al., Cychzations of hydroxy dithioketals. New synthetic technology for the construction of oxocenes and related medium-ring systems, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 111, 5321, 1989. 

Nicolaou and co-workers have reported the synthesis of the bis fused oxonin (218), albeit in low yield, by the silver-promoted ring closure of the hydroxy dithioketal (219) (Scheme 21) <89JA532l). 

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