Iminium salts, Mannich reaction

Imines are more versatile than preformed iminium salts in reactions with active methylene compounds because the product, a secondary Mannich base, has an additional site on the nitrogen for further elaboration (equation 11). Imine condensation reactions are also superior to the classical method for the synthesis of secondary Mannich bases because cross-condensation reactions do not occur, due to the absence of free aldehyde in solution. The major side reactions occurring in imine condensation reactions are abstraction of enolizable ot-protons and self-condensation reactions of enolizable imines at elevated temperature. 

With an unsymmetrical ketone as CH-acidic substrate, two regioisomeric products can be formed. A regioselective reaction may in such cases be achieved by employing a preformed iminium salt instead of formaldehyde and ammonia. An iminium salt reagent—the Eschenmoser salt—has also found application in Mannich reactions. ... 

The reaction of enamines with iminium salts provides an alternative route to Mannich bases which are an attractive class of compounds, since they have found many applications (synthesis of drugs, pesticides, synthetic building blocks, etc.). This methodology has several basic advantages compared to the classic aminomethylation procedure15-18-24 ... 

Aza-Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous soiutions cycioaddition of dienes with simpie iminium salts generated under Mannich conditions [22]... 

Scheme 2.12 shows some representative Mannich reactions. Entries 1 and 2 show the preparation of typical Mannich bases from a ketone, formaldehyde, and a dialkylamine following the classical procedure. Alternatively, formaldehyde equivalents may be used, such as l>is-(di methyl ami no)methane in Entry 3. On treatment with trifluoroacetic acid, this aminal generates the iminium trifluoroacetate as a reactive electrophile. lV,A-(Dimethyl)methylene ammonium iodide is commercially available and is known as Eschenmoser s salt.192 This compound is sufficiently electrophilic to react directly with silyl enol ethers in neutral solution.183 The reagent can be added to a solution of an enolate or enolate precursor, which permits the reaction to be carried out under nonacidic conditions. Entries 4 and 5 illustrate the preparation of Mannich bases using Eschenmoser s salt in reactions with preformed enolates. 

Primary amino methylene substituents were introduced by a sequence of cya-nodehalogenation and subsequent reduction of the resulting nitrile with borane dimethyl sulfide. To incorporate tertiary aminomethylene substituents into the 2-pyri-done framework, a microwave-assisted Mannich reaction using preformed iminium salts proved to be effective. 

Besides the allylation reactions, imines can also undergo enol silyl ether addition as with carbonyl compounds. Carbon-carbon bond formation involving the addition of resonance-stabilized nucleophiles such as enols and enolates or enol ethers to iminium salt or imine can be referred to as a Mannich reaction, and this is one of the most important classes of reactions in organic synthesis.104... 

Calculations of simple model Mannich reactions have focused on the role of iminium salt as potential Mannich reagent. ... 

Intramolecular Mannich type reaction of the conjugated iminium salt 426 should lead to ellipticine (228) via an intermediate 427. Alternatively, the conjugated iminium salt 426 could hydrolyze to afford the 2-vinylsubstituted indole 428, which, on cyclization through an intermediate 429, would lead to guatambuine (233). This alkaloid, on demethylation and dehydrogenation, should afford olivacine (238a) (375) (Scheme 3.11). 

Iminium salts (182) were starting materials in reactions with enamines (93CB133 94CB1437), which proceed by two different pathways with the formation of bicyclic ketones (183) and with the formation of substituted pyridines. The authors assume that the reaction takes place by a double electrophilic attack of the salt (182) in the /3-positions of the enamine and the resulting immonium cations undergo a retro-Mannich type of reaction with the opening of one of the piperidine rings. 

Nucleophiles other than hydride can be added to support-bound imines to yield amines. These include C,H-acidic compounds, alkynes, electron-rich heterocycles, organometallic compounds, boronic acids, and ketene acetals (Table 10.9). When basic reaction conditions are used, stoichiometric amounts of the imine must be prepared on the support (Entries 1-3, Table 10.9). Alternatively, if the carbon nucleophile is stable under acidic conditions, imines or iminium salts might be generated in situ, as, for instance, in the Mannich reaction. Few examples have been reported of Mannich reactions on insoluble supports, and most of these have been based on alkynes as C-nucleophiles. 

In origin, the Mannich reaction is a three-component reaction between an eno-lizable CH-acidic carbonyl compound, an amine, and an aldehyde producing / -aminocarbonyl compounds. Such direct Mannich reactions can encompass severe selectivity problems since both the aldehyde and the CH-acidic substrate can often act as either nucleophile or electrophile. Aldol addition and condensation reactions can be additional competing processes. Therefore preformed electrophiles (imines, iminium salts, hydrazones) or nucleophiles (enolates, enamines, enol ethers), or both, are often used, which allows the assignment of a specific role to each car-... 

Here again, loss of Y = H would result in rearomatization and formation of 12, but in the case of Y = Me, this cannot occur. However, assistance by the amine nitrogen lone pair can aid the rearomatization process, producing the copper-bound phenol product and an imininm salt. Hydrolysis during the workup procedure could release the 2-meth-ylphenol product and result in a retro-Mannich reaction to give the observed secondary amine (PY2) and formaldehyde. A small amount (<10%) of N—Me—PY2 is often observed as a byproduct and its yield is at the expense of the PY2 and formaldehyde thus, it appears to be derived from direct reduction of the intermediate iminium salt [167],... 

We need a formaldehyde equivalent that is less electrophilic than formaldehyde itself and will therefore add only once to enol(ate)s. The solution is the Mannich reaction.7 Formaldehyde is combined with a secondary amine to give an iminium salt that adds 47 to the enol of the aldehyde or ketone in slightly acidic conditions to give the amino ketone (or Mannich base ) 48. If the product of the aldol reaction 50 is wanted, alkylation on nitrogen provides a good leaving group and ElcB elimination does the trick. 

We still have to make the pyrrole with the alkyl side chain for this acylation reaction. Friedel-Crafts alkylation is not an option but pyrroles are reactive enough to do the Mannich reaction. Formaldehyde and an amine combine to give another iminium salt 107 that reacts with A-methyl pyrrole to give, after rearomatisation 109 the substituted pyrrole 110. 

The classical Mannich aminomethylation is one of the most important ionic carbon-carbon bond forming reactions in organic chemistry [35]. However, only substituents with electron-withdrawing groups are suitable for the ionic addition. Electron-donating groups directly bonded to the carbon-centered radical favor nucleophilic radical addition to methylene-iminium salts. Thus, the radical-type Mannich reaction provides products which are complementary to those obtained with the classical ionic reaction. 

Cooper, M. S. and Heaney, H., Mannich reactions of aryl trialkyl stannates via pre-fonned iminium. salts. Tetrahedron Lett., 27, 5011, 1986. 

Larsen, S. D. and Grieco, P. A., Azui Diels-Aldcr reactions in aqueous solution Cyclocondensation of dienes with simple iminium salts generated under Mannich conditions, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 107, 1768, 1985. 

Secondary amines such as dimethylamine give rise to iminium salts. These salts, such as that formed from formaldehyde and dimethylamine, have a very reactive electron-deficient carbon. They are useful in C-C bond formation in the Mannich reaction. 

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