In Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation

Despite the complexity of the active catalyst, the sense of asymmetric induction in Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation reactions can be rehably predicted using the model shown in Figure 4.2. In order for the model to predict the stereochemical outcome correctly, only two points need to be remembered. The allyhc hydroxy group resides in the bottom right corner and D-(-)-diethyl tartrate (which has the (S,S)-configuration) attacks from above the plane. 

Fig. 8. Use of Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation for the preparation of an intermediate in the synthesis of FK-506 (105), where represents the chiral...

The essential features of the Masamune-Sharpless hexose synthesis strategy are outlined in a general way in Scheme 4. The strategy is based on the reiterative- application of a two-carbon extension cycle. One cycle comprises the following four key transformations (I) homologation of an aldehyde to an allylic alcohol (II) Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of the allylic alcohol ... 

Scheme 4. The Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation in the J.T. Baker Company s commercial synthesis of (7/ ,8S)-disparlure (15).

The development of Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation (SAE) of allylic alcohols in 1980 constitutes a breakthrough in asymmetric synthesis, and to date this method remains the most widely applied asymmetric epoxidation technique [34, 44]. A wide range of substrates can be used in the reaction ( ) -allylic alcohols generally give high enantioselectivity, whereas the reaction is more substrate-dependent with (Z)-allylic alcohols [34]. 

Allylic alcohols can be converted to epoxy-alcohols with tert-butylhydroperoxide on molecular sieves, or with peroxy acids. Epoxidation of allylic alcohols can also be done with high enantioselectivity. In the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation,allylic alcohols are converted to optically active epoxides in better than 90% ee, by treatment with r-BuOOH, titanium tetraisopropoxide and optically active diethyl tartrate. The Ti(OCHMe2)4 and diethyl tartrate can be present in catalytic amounts (15-lOmol %) if molecular sieves are present. Polymer-supported catalysts have also been reported. Since both (-t-) and ( —) diethyl tartrate are readily available, and the reaction is stereospecific, either enantiomer of the product can be prepared. The method has been successful for a wide range of primary allylic alcohols, where the double bond is mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrasubstituted. This procedure, in which an optically active catalyst is used to induce asymmetry, has proved to be one of the most important methods of asymmetric synthesis, and has been used to prepare a large number of optically active natural products and other compounds. The mechanism of the Sharpless epoxidation is believed to involve attack on the substrate by a compound formed from the titanium alkoxide and the diethyl tartrate to produce a complex that also contains the substrate and the r-BuOOH. ... 

Although the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation is an elegant method to introduce a specific defined chirality in epoxy alcohols and thus, in functionalized aziridines (see Sect. 2.1), it is restricted to the use of allylic alcohols as the starting materials. To overcome this limitation, cyclic sulfites and sulfates derived from enantiopure vfc-diols can be used as synthetic equivalents of epoxides (Scheme 5) [12,13]. 

The synthesis shown in Scheme 13.66 starts with the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation product of geraniol. The epoxide was opened with inversion of configuration by NaBHjCN-BFj. The double bond was cleaved by ozonolysis and converted to the corresponding primary bromide. The terminal alkyne was introduced by alkylation of... 

Posticlure [(6Z,9Z,llS,12S)-ll,12-epoxy-6,9-henicosadiene, 14] is the female sex pheromone of the tussock moth, Orgyia postica. Wakamura s first synthesis of 14 was achieved by employing Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation, and the final product was of 59% ee [38]. Mori prepared 14 of high purity as shown in Scheme 25 basing on asymmetric dihydroxylation (AD) [39]. Kumar also published an AD-based synthesis of 14 [40], which was more lengthy and less efficient than Mori s [39]. 

The second synthesis of crystalline 43 was reported by Mori as summarized in Scheme 62 [93]. The building block (4.R,5S)-A was prepared by an enzymatic process, while another building block C was synthesized via Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation. Coupling of A with C gave D, which was cyclized under Op-polzer s conditions to give crystalline E. When E was oxidized with Dess-Martin periodinane or tetra(n-propyl)ammonium perruthenate or Jones chromic acid, crystalline 43 was obtained. Swern oxidation or oxidation with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1 -oxyl of E afforded only oily materials. Accordingly, oxidation of E to 43 must be executed extremely carefully. A synthesis of oily 43 was reported by Gil [94]. 

In 1980, K. B. Sharpless (then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presently at the University of California San Diego, Scripps research Institute co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2001) and co-workers reported the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation . 

The synthetic utility of chiral epoxy alcohol synthons produced by the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation has been demonstrated in enantioselective syntheses of many important compounds. 

Aryl and alkenyl groups undergo this anft -migration more easily than an alkyl group. This rearrangement in combination with Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation affords a stereocontrolled route to aldols and 1,3-diols (second example). 

It is now clear that asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation is rather successful. However, the initial research work of Sharpless [5] in the asymmetric epoxidation, followed by the results of Jacobsen et al. [6] opened large opportunities for liquid-phase asymmetric oxidation. Sharpless epoxidation has been widely applied in bench-scale organic synthesis, and more recently, salene derivatives emerged among the most effective catalysts in this reaction [7,8],... 

A cuprate prepared in situ from tBuPh2SiLi and Cul has been found to react with alkynyl epoxides to afford allenylsilanes (Eq. 9.43) [50]. Enantioenriched alkynyl epoxides, which are readily prepared in high yield through Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation [51], afford chiral allenylsilanes with anti stereoselectivity. 

The MABR-promoted rearrangement, when applied to optically active epoxy substrates, has been shown to proceed with rigorous transfer of the epoxide chirality. Accordingly, used in combination with the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols,5 this rearrangement represents a new approach to the synthesis of various... 

Further variations on the epoxyketone intermediate theme have been reported. In the first (Scheme 9A) [78], limonene oxide was prepared by Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of commercial (S)-(-)- perillyl alcohol 65 followed by conversion of the alcohol 66 to the crystalline mesylate, recrystallization to remove stereoisomeric impurities, and reduction with LiAlH4 to give (-)-limonene oxide 59. This was converted to the key epoxyketone 60 by phase transfer catalyzed permanganate oxidation. Control of the trisubstituted alkene stereochemistry was achieved by reaction of the ketone with the anion from (4-methyl-3-pentenyl)diphenylphosphine oxide, yielding the isolable erythro adduct 67, and the trisubstituted E-alkene 52a from spontaneous elimination by the threo adduct. Treatment of the erythro adduct with NaH in DMF resulted... 

The asymmetric hydrogenation of cinnamic acid derivatives has been developed by Knowles at Monsanto [4], The synthesis of L-dopa (Figure 4.3), a drug for the treatment of Parkinson s disease, has been developed and is applied on an industrial scale. Knowles received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2001 together with Noyori (see below, BINAP ) and Sharpless (asymmetric epoxidation). 

The paramount importance of Sharpless "asymmetric epoxidation" lies on the fact that the epoxide group is almost as versatile as the carbonyl group (in Heading 5.2 we have referred to it as a "homocarbonyl" group). The method is of general applicability and is relatively indifferent to pre-existing chiral centres, so it may be used iteratively. Moreover, either of the two enantiomers may be obtained, usually... 

More than a decade of experience on Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation has confirmed that the method allows a great structural diversity in allylic alcohols and no exceptions to the face-selectivity rules shown in Fig. 10.1 have been reported to date. The scheme can be used with absolute confidence to predict and assign absolute configurations to the epoxides obtained from prochiral allylic alcohols. However, when allylic alcohols have chiral substituents at C(l), C(2) and/or C(3), the assignment of stereochemistry to the newly introduced epoxide group must be done with considerably more care. 

Sharpless "asymmetric epoxidation" has been used in the enantioselective synthesis of several natural products, including the kinetic resolution of allylic alcohols [11] and the creation of ... 

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