Hydroxy esters reduction

Selective reduction of a-hydroxy esters. Reduction of esters with BMS is slow, but can be facilitated by addition of catalytic amounts of sodium borohydride. This method of reduction can be used to effect regioselective reduction of a-hydroxy esters. Thus reduction of dimethyl (S)-( — )-malate (1) results in formation of methyl (3S)-3,4-dihydroxybutanoate (2). 

A fluorinated keto ester reacts as an electrophile with hydrides, giving a hydroxy ester in a highly stereoselective reduction [30] (equation 25). 

Some workers avoid delay. Pai)adium-on-carbon was used effectively for the reductive amination of ethyl 2-oxo-4-phenyl butanoate with L-alanyl-L-proline in a synthesis of the antihyperlensive, enalapril maleate. SchifTs base formation and reduction were carried out in a single step as Schiff bases of a-amino acids and esters are known to be susceptible to racemization. To a solution of 4,54 g ethyl 2-oxO 4-phenylbutanoate and 1.86 g L-alanyl-L-proline was added 16 g 4A molecular sieve and 1.0 g 10% Pd-on-C The mixture was hydrogenated for 15 hr at room temperature and 40 psig H2. Excess a-keto ester was required as reduction to the a-hydroxy ester was a serious side reaction. The yield was 77% with a diastereomeric ratio of 62 38 (SSS RSS)((55). 

In a study aim to develop biocatalytic process for the synthesis of Kaneka alcohol, apotential intermediate for the synthesis of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, cell suspensions of Acine-tobacter sp. SC 13 874 was found to reduce diketo ethyl ester to give the desired syn-(AR,5S)-dihydroxy ester with an ee of 99% and a de of 63% (Figure 7.4). When the tert-butyl ester was used as the starting material, a mixture of mono- and di-hydroxy esters was obtained with the dihydroxy ester showing an ee of 87% and de of 51% for the desired, sy -(3/t,5,Sr)-dihydroxy ester [16]. Three different ketoreductases were purified from this strain. Reductase I only catalyzes the reduction of diketo ester to its monohydroxy products, whereas reductase II catalyzes the formation of dihydroxy products from monohydroxy substrates. A third reductase (III) catalyzes the reduction of diketo ester to, vv -(3/t,55)-dihydroxy ester. 

Scheme 65 summarizes Mori s synthesis of 44 [97]. Reduction of keto ester A with baker s yeast gave hydroxy ester B of about 98% ee. Methylation of the dianion derived from B diastereoselectively gave C, which was converted to 44. This process enabled the preparation of about 10 g of (lS,5R)-44. 

Hydroxy esters have been obtained successfully with baker s yeast (Sac-charomyces cerevisidae), and this has shown a wide scope of application. The facial selectivity in the reduction of both isolated ketones and //-keto esters can be reliably determined by using Prelog s rule,8 which predicts that the hydrogen addition by the yeast will occur from the front face (Scheme 8-2). Anti-Prelog microbial reduction of a-ketones with Geotrichum sp. 38 (G38) has been introduced by Gu et al.9... 

Asymmetric reductions. The reagent can effect asymmetric reduction of alkyl aryl ketones and unhindered dialkyl ketones in high optical yield.1 It is the most useful reagent known to date for asymmetric reduction of even hindered a-keto esters to (S)-a-hydroxy esters in >90% ee.2 It is also effective for asymmetric reduction of phosphinyl imines of dialkyl ketones, RlR2C=NP(0)(C6H5)2 (50-84% ee).3... 

Reduction of a. -epoxy esters to fi-hydroxy esters. Sml2 alone reduces these esters to a mixture of a- and p-hydroxy esters. The reaction rate and yield is increased by addition of HMPT. Addition of a chelating agent, TMEDA or N,N-dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE), results in regioselective reduction to p-hydroxy esters (equation I). The system reduces optically active epoxy esters with complete... 

Fish and Ecosystem Studies. When bluegill sunfish are exposed to a constant level of methoprene in a dynamic flowthrough system, they accumulate radiocarbon until a plateau is reached after 7-14 days (33). While levels of methoprene in fish were about lOOOx that in water at the plateau, treated bluegill placed into uncontaminated water showed a 93-95% radiocarbon reduction in 14-21 days. Analysis of fish tissues at plateau levels revealed that 90% of the radiocarbon was unmetabolized parent, 1% was the hydroxy ester, while the remainder was polar conjugates. 

A demonstration of the utility of the electroreductive cyclization reaction is provided by the formal total synthesis of the antitumor agent quadrone (16, Scheme 4) [17]. The first stage of the synthesis involved a controlled potential reduction of (9) in the presence of dimethyl malonate as the proton donor. An efficient cyclization ensued, leading to the formation of the y-hydroxy ester (10)... 

Access to the corresponding enantiopure hydroxy esters 133 and 134 of smaller fragments 2 with R =Me employed a highly stereoselective (ds>95%) Evans aldol reaction of allenic aldehydes 113 and rac-114 with boron enolate 124 followed by silylation to arrive at the y-trimethylsilyloxy allene substrates 125 and 126, respectively, for the crucial oxymercuration/methoxycarbonylation process (Scheme 19). Again, this operation provided the desired tetrahydrofurans 127 and 128 with excellent diastereoselectivity (dr=95 5). Chemoselective hydrolytic cleavage of the chiral auxiliary, chemoselective carboxylic acid reduction, and subsequent diastereoselective chelation-controlled enoate reduction (133 dr of crude product=80 20, 134 dr of crude product=84 16) eventually provided the pure stereoisomers 133 and 134 after preparative HPLC. 

Perlmutter used an oxymercuration/demercuration of a y-hydroxy alkene as the key transformation in an enantioselective synthesis of the C(8 ) epimeric smaller fragment of lb (and many more pamamycin homologs cf. Fig. 1) [36]. Preparation of substrate 164 for the crucial cyclization event commenced with silylation and reduction of hydroxy ester 158 (85-89% ee) [37] to give aldehyde 159, which was converted to alkenal 162 by (Z)-selective olefination with ylide 160 (dr=89 l 1) and another diisobutylaluminum hydride reduction (Scheme 22). An Oppolzer aldol reaction with boron enolate 163 then provided 164 as the major product. Upon successive treatment of 164 with mercury(II) acetate and sodium chloride, organomercurial compound 165 and a second minor diastereomer (dr=6 l) were formed, which could be easily separated. Reductive demercuration, hydrolytic cleavage of the chiral auxiliary, methyl ester formation, and desilylation eventually led to 166, the C(8 ) epimer of the... 

In practice, reduction of 35 (—2.43 V vs SCE) in the presence of 3,5-dimethylphenol as a proton donor, tetra- -butylammonium hexafluorophos-phate as the supporting electrolyte, and DMF as the solvent, led to the y-hydroxy ester 40 and lactone 41 [22]. No sign of any material resulting from cyclization onto the alkene was detected. It was concluded that radical cyclization does not occur in this instance, and that the homogeneous electron transfer rate exceeds that of a 5-exo-trig radical cyclization, thereby implying the operation of either a radical anion or carbanion cyclization pathway. 

Controlled potential reduction of 60 in the presence of dimethyl malonate as a proton donor afforded a mixture of two products, the y-hydroxy ester 65 and lactone 66, in a combined yield of 89% each was converted to a common intermediate, 67. 

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