2- indole synthesis

Modified Larock indoie synthesis for fused systems (1999)  

The total synthesis of (-)-fuchsiaefoline was accomplished in the laboratory of J.M. Cook using the Larock indole synthesis to prepare the key precursor 7-methoxy-D-tryptophan in enantiopure form. The propargyl-substituted Schollkopf chiral auxiliary was reacted with 2-iodo-6-methoxyaniline in the presence of 2 mol% Pd(OAc)2 to give the expected indole in good yield. Interestingly, the Bartoli indole synthesis gives /-substituted indoles only in moderate yield. 

Walsh and co-workers synthesized two (S)- 3-methyl-2-aryltryptamine based gonadotropin hormone antagonists via a consecutive Larock indole synthesis and Suzuki cross-coupling. The required (S)-P-methyltryptophol derivatives were prepared by coupling 4-substituted o-iodoanilines with optically active internal alkynes under standard conditions. The resulting 2-trialkylsilyl substituted indoles were then subjected to a silver-assisted iododesilylation reaction to afford the 2-iodo-substituted indoles that served as coupling partners for the Suzuki cross-coupling step. 

The preparation of diversely substituted azaindoles is fairly difficult, and there are no generally applicable strategies in the literature. Research by L. Xu et al. showed that 2-substituted-5-azaindoles could be synthesized by the Pd-catalyzed coupling of aminopyridyl iodides with terminal alkynes. The coupling reaction proceeded in good yield under the conditions originally developed by Larock. Therefore, this example can be considered an extension of the Larock indole synthesis. By stopping the reaction early it was shown that the intermediate was an internal alkyne. 

A complete reversal of regioselectivity was observed by M. Isobe and co-workers during the Larock heteroannulation of o-iodoaniline with a-C-glucosylpropargyl glycine in an attempt to prepare C-glycosyltryptophan.  

Harmata and Herron 91T8855 , discovered that the adducts from Lewis-acid mediated synthesis of 2,1-benzothiazines could have use in the synthesis of the other heterocyclic 

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An important general method of preparing indoles, known as the Fischer Indole synthesis, consists in heating the phenylhydrazone of an aldehyde, ketone or keto-acld in the presence of a catalyst such as zinc chloride, hydrochloric acid or glacial acetic acid. Thus acrtophenone phenylhydrazone (I) gives 2-phenyllndole (I V). The synthesis involves an intramolecular condensation with the elimination of ammonia. The following is a plausible mechanism of the reaction ... 

Benzilic acid rearrangement Benzoin reaction (condensation) Blanc chloromethylation reaction Bouveault-Blanc reduction Bucherer hydantoin synthesis Bucherer reaction Cannizzaro reaction Claisen aldoi condensation Claisen condensation Claisen-Schmidt reaction. Clemmensen reduction Darzens glycidic ester condensation Diazoamino-aminoazo rearrangement Dieckmann reaction Diels-Alder reaction Doebner reaction Erlenmeyer azlactone synthesis Fischer indole synthesis Fischer-Speior esterification Friedel-Crafts reaction... 

The classical conditions for the Madelung indole synthesis are illustrated by the Organic Syntheses preparation of 2-methylindole which involves heating o-methylacetanilide with sodium amide at 250 C[1]. 

The development of methods for aromatic substitution based on catalysis by transition metals, especially palladium, has led to several new methods for indole synthesis. One is based on an intramolecular Heck reaction in which an... 

Another category Ic indole synthesis involves cyclization of a-anilino aldehydes or ketones under the influence of protonic or Lewis acids. This corresponds to retro.synthetic path d in Scheme 4.1. Considerable work on such reactions was done in the early 1960s by Julia and co-workers. The most successful examples involved alkylation of anilines with y-haloacetoacetic esters or amides. For example, heating IV-substituted anilines with ethyl 4-bromoacetoacetate followed by cyclization w ith ZnClj gave indole-3-acetate esterfi]. Additional examples are given in Table 4.3. 

The main example of a category I indole synthesis is the Hemetsberger procedure for preparation of indole-2-carboxylate esters from ot-azidocinna-mates[l]. The procedure involves condensation of an aromatic aldehyde with an azidoacetate ester, followed by thermolysis of the resulting a-azidocinna-mate. The conditions used for the base-catalysed condensation are critical since the azidoacetate enolate can decompose by elimination of nitrogen. Conditions developed by Moody usually give good yields[2]. This involves slow addition of the aldehyde and 3-5 equiv. of the azide to a cold solution of sodium ethoxide. While the thermolysis might be viewed as a nitrene insertion reaction, it has been demonstrated that azirine intermediates can be isolated at intermediate temperatures[3]. 

Retrosynthesis a in Scheme 7,1 corresponds to the Fischer indole synthesis which is the most widely used of all indole syntheses. The Fischer cyclization converts arylhydrazones of aldehydes or ketones into indoles by a process which involves orf/io-substitution via a sigmatropic rearrangement. The rearrangement generates an imine of an o-aminobenzyl ketone which cyclizes and aromatizes by loss of ammonia. 

B. Robinson, ) he Hscher Indole Synthesis, John Wiley, Chichester, 1982. 

One of the virtues of the Fischer indole synthesis is that it can frequently be used to prepare indoles having functionalized substituents. This versatility extends beyond the range of very stable substituents such as alkoxy and halogens and includes esters, amides and hydroxy substituents. Table 7.3 gives some examples. These include cases of introduction of 3-acetic acid, 3-acetamide, 3-(2-aminoethyl)- and 3-(2-hydroxyethyl)- side-chains, all of which are of special importance in the preparation of biologically active indole derivatives. Entry 11 is an efficient synthesis of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin. A noteworthy feature of the reaction is the... 

Donor substituents on the vinyl group further enhance reactivity towards electrophilic dienophiles. Equations 8.6 and 8.7 illustrate the use of such functionalized vinylpyrroles in indole synthesis[2,3]. In both of these examples, the use of acetyleneic dienophiles leads to fully aromatic products. Evidently this must occur as the result of oxidation by atmospheric oxygen. With vinylpyrrole 8.6A, adducts were also isolated from dienophiles such as methyl acrylate, dimethyl maleate, dimethyl fumarate, acrolein, acrylonitrile, maleic anhydride, W-methylmaleimide and naphthoquinone. These tetrahydroindole adducts could be aromatized with DDQ, although the overall yields were modest[3]. 

The Fischer Indole Synthesis and Related Sigmatropic Syntheses. In the Fischer indole synthesis (26) an Ai-aryUiydra2one is cyclized, usually under acidic conditions, to an indole. The key step is a [3,3] sigmatropic rearrangement of an enehydra2one tautomer of the hydra2one. 

Aromatic amines react with 1-haloketones or 1-hydroxyketones to yield substituted indoles. This reaction is known as the Bischler indole synthesis (30). 

Unsaturated hydrazones, unsaturated diazonium salts or hydrazones of 2,3,5-triketones can be used as suitable precursors for the formation of pyridazines in this type of cyclization reaction. As shown in Scheme 61, pyridazines are obtainable in a single step by thermal cyclization of the tricyanohydrazone (139), prepared from cyanoacetone phenylhydrazone and tetracyanoethylene (76CB1787). Similarly, in an attempted Fischer indole synthesis the hydrazone of the cyano compound (140) was transformed into a pyridazine (Scheme 61)... 

The Piloty-Robinson pyrrole synthesis (74JOC2575,18JCS639) may be viewed as a monocyclic equivalent of the Fischer indole synthesis. The conversion of ketazines into pyrroles under strongly acidic conditions apparently proceeds through a [3,3] sigmatropic rearrange-... 

Formation of a 1,2-disubstituted hydrazine by acid hydrolysis of an appropriately substituted pyrazolidine has been noted (67HC(22)l), but the most interesting ring fission of pyrazolidines involves the N(l)—N(2) bond of 1-phenylpyrazolidines (421). If, instead of phenylhydrazone, compound (421) is used in the Fischer indole synthesis, N- aminopropylin-doles are formed (73T4045). Scheme 39 shows the reaction with cyclohexanone. 

Aniline, N-alkyl-o-allyl-indole synthesis from, 4, 321 Aniline, N-allyl-... 

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