Indole derivatives 2-hydroxyalkylation

Lithiated indoles can be alkylated with primary or allylic halides and they react with aldehydes and ketones by addition to give hydroxyalkyl derivatives. Table 10.1 gives some examples of such reactions. Entry 13 is an example of a reaction with ethylene oxide which introduces a 2-(2-hydroxyethyl) substituent. Entries 14 and 15 illustrate cases of addition to aromatic ketones in which dehydration occurs during the course of the reaction. It is likely that this process occurs through intramolecular transfer of the phenylsulfonyl group. 

A wide vanety of nucleophiles, such as 1-alkylpyrroles, furans, thiophenls [51], phenols [52], anilmes [55, 54], indoles [55], CH-acidic compounds [56, 57], as well as organolithium [56], Gngnard [57, 59], organocadmiura, and organozmc compounds [56], undergo C-hydroxyalkylation with trifluoropynivates to yield derivatives of a-trifluoromethyi a-hydroxy acids. 

The Reimer-Tiemann reaction is not an effective route to formyl-pyrroles or -indoles (see Section 3.05.1.6) and the oxidation of alkyl and hydroxyalkyl derivatives of the heterocycles and the reduction of carboxylic acid derivatives are discussed in Sections 3.05.2.2 and 3.05.2.4, respectively. 

Some bifunctional 6 -OH Cinchona alkaloid derivatives catalyse the enantioselective hydroxyalkylation of indoles by aldehydes and a-keto esters.44 Indole, for example, can react with ethyl glyoxylate to give mainly (39) in 93% ee. The enan- tioselective reaction of indoles with iV-sulfonyl aldimines [e.g. (40)] is catalysed by the Cu(OTf)2 complex of (S)-benzylbisoxazoline (37b) to form 3-indolylmethanamine derivatives, in up to 96% ee [e.g. (41a)] 45 Some 9-thiourea Cinchona alkaloids have been found to catalyse the formation of 3-indolylmethanamines [e.g. (41b)] from indoles and /V-PhS02-phenyli mines in 90% ee.46 Aryl- and alkyl-imines also give enantioselective reactions. 

The above reaction sequence (Scheme 11), sometimes called the Katritzky method, has been exploited by a number of research groups for the preparation of 2-substituted IV-unsubstituted indoles [83, 102, 130, 218, 240-245], Gribble and Bergman used this chemistry to prepare 2-bromoindole and 2-iodoindole [246-248]. Bergman and Janosik further explored this sequence to prepare indol-2-yl sulfides and selenides [57,249,250]. Hudkins has used this chemistry to prepare 2-hydroxyatkylindoles en route to indolocarbazole derivatives [251, 252], The first step in Bergman s short total synthesis of yuehchukene used the Katritzky method and aldehyde 59, which gave 2-(hydroxyalkyl)indole 60 (Scheme 12) [253, 254]. 

Microwave-assisted decarboxylative Claisen rearrangement reactions of substituted acetate derivatives of 3-(hydroxyalkyl)indoles give dearomatised products (Camp et al., 2011). The reactivity of the resultant compounds was evaluated. 

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