Indoles enamines

An oxidation-cyclization was observed to take place on an indole enamine by simple swirling the solution in air in the presence of K2C0334 (Scheme 19). For X = O, air-oxidation mediated by dimethyl sulphoxide and potassium terf-butoxide resulted in dehydrogenation with formation of the 2-pyridone derivative. 

The addition of an indolic enamine to salicylaldehyde was used to prepare photochromic spiropyranes. o xhe conventional process in ethanol solution is lengthy and requires several days. Sonication brings about a spectacular acceleration when effected in ethanol solution. The irradiation conditions are not specified (Eq. 16), and the origin of such an important effect is unclear. 

One route to o-nitrobenzyl ketones is by acylation of carbon nucleophiles by o-nitrophenylacetyl chloride. This reaction has been applied to such nucleophiles as diethyl malonatc[l], methyl acetoacetate[2], Meldrum s acid[3] and enamines[4]. The procedure given below for ethyl indole-2-acetate is a good example of this methodology. Acylation of u-nitrobenzyl anions, as illustrated by the reaction with diethyl oxalate in the classic Reissert procedure for preparing indolc-2-carboxylate esters[5], is another route to o-nitrobenzyl ketones. The o-nitrophenyl enamines generated in the first step of the Leimgruber-Batcho synthesis (see Section 2.1) are also potential substrates for C-acylation[6,7], Deformylation and reduction leads to 2-sub-stituted indoles. 

Acylation of the Leimgruber Batcho enamines with phosgene followed by methanolysis and reductive cyclization generates methyl indole-3-carb-oxylates[8]... 

Reductive Gyclizations. The Batcho-Leimgmber protocol involves condensation of an o-nitrotoluene with a dimethylformamide acetal to form a P-( nitrophenyl)enamine (27). A reducing agent then affects the reductive cycli2ation to an indole. 

There have been a number of refinements to the procedure, both in the enamine formation and in the reduction. Furthermore, the procedure can be adapted to 2-substituted indoles by introducing an acyl substituent on the enamine intermediate. 

A pseudo 1,2 cycloaddition (actually a 1,3 cycloaddition, but may be considered a 1,2 type if a three-membered ring is considered analogous to an alkene) is observed when the pyrrolidine enamine of cyclohexanone is allowed to react with N-carbethoxyaziridine (129) to produce octahydro-indole 130 91). Octahydroindoles and pyrrolidines can also be produced through the intramolecular alkylation of the enamines of certain halo-ketourethanes 176a). 

Read ions of Heterocyclic Enamines with a,p-Unsaturated Compounds Enamines react readily with compounds containing a double bone activated by electronegative groups. Addition of acrolein to 1-methyl-2 ethylidenepyrrolidine, followed by dehydrogenation, leads to 1,7-dimethyl indole (133) (Scheme 9) (215). 

W. I. Taylor, Indole Alkaloids. An Introduction to the Enamine Chemistry of Natural Products, Pergamon Press, New York, 1966. 

Formally analogous to the foregoing Grignard additions are the intramolecular condensations of amides with aromatic systems, found in the Bischler-Napieralski reaction 101), which is of particular interest in isoquinoline and indole alkaloid syntheses (102). Condensations of amidines with reactive methylene compounds also led to enamines (103-106). 

Thus the critical synthetic 1,6-dihydropyridine precursor for the unique isoquinuclidine system of the iboga alkaloids, was generated by reduction of a pyridinium salt with sodium borohydride in base (137-140). Lithium aluminum hydride reduction of phenylisoquinolinium and indole-3-ethylisoquinolinium salts gave enamines, which could be cyclized to the skeletons found in norcoralydine (141) and the yohimbane-type alkaloids (142,143). 

The reactions of enamines with positively activated olefins have been extended to arylations with />-quinones (350,362-369) and quinone sulfoni-mides (365-368,370). Thus a new pathway for the facile formation of benzofurans and indoles became available. 

In the arylations of enamines with very reactive aryl halides (352,370) such as 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene, the closely related mechanistic pathway of addition of the enamine to the aromatic system, followed by elimination of halide ion, can be assumed. The use of n-nitroarylhalides furnishes compounds which can be converted to indolic products by reductive cycliza-tion. Less reactive aryl halides, such as p-nitrochlorobenzene, lead only to N-arylation or oxidation products of the enamines under more vigorous conditions. 

The enamine-imine tautomerism of the indolenine system gives rise to rearrangement reactions of interest in indole alkaloid chemistry. Thus the synthesis of dihydroburnamicine (625) utilized the rearrangement of an acetoxyindolenine to an a-hydroxyalkyl indole, presumably through an intermediate enamine. Similarly 2,3-dialkyl indoles undergo oxidations to 2-acyl indoles (626-631). 

The Nenitzescu indole synthesis involves the condensation of a quinone 1 and an enamine 2 to generate a hydroxyindole 3. 

At least two pathways have been proposed for the Nenitzescu reaction. The mechanism outlined below is generally accepted." Illustrated here is the indolization of the 1,4-benzoquinone (4) with ethyl 3-aminocrotonate (5). The mechanism consists of four stages (I) Michael addition of the carbon terminal of the enamine 5 to quinone 4 (II) Oxidation of the resulting hydroquinone 10 to the quinone 11 either by the starting quinone 4 or the quinonimmonium intermediate 13, which is generated at a later stage (HI) Cyclization of the quinone adduct 11, if in the cw-configuration, to the carbinolamine 12 or quinonimmonium intermediate 13 (IV) Reduction of the intermediates 12 or 13 to the 5-hydroxyindole 6 by the initial hydroquinone adduct 7 (or 8, 9,10). 

The Nenitzescu reaction generally occurs under relatively mild reaction conditions. Moreover mono-, di-, and tri-substituted quinones react with equal facility. Many enamines including p-aminoacrylonitriles, p-aminoacrylamides, and p-amino-a,p-unsaturated ketones react with quinones to form indole nuclei as well. The mild reaction conditions and the availability of the starting material render it attractive even in those instances where the yield of the product is low. ... 

The best yields of 5-hydroxyindoles are obtained when equimolar amounts of the quinone and enamine are used. An excess of enamine gives rise to non-indolic products derived from reaction of two enamine units and one quinone unit or the product which results from the initial Michael addition of the enamine to the quinone. Use of excess quinone has been reported less frequently, but limited studies indicate no advantage. When 2,5-dichloro-l,4-benzoquinone (32) was treated with a 50% excess of ethyl 3-... 

In a similar system, Melhado and Leonard (64) obtained better results if the enamine (13) were first converted to a semicarbazone (14) before hydrogenation and cyclization to the indole (15). 

In the presence of a catalytic amount of concentrated hydrochloric acid, dimethyl 1 -methyl-1 H-l-benzazepine-3,4-dicarboxylate (1) undergoes addition of 1-methylindole, probably via initial protonation of the enaminic 3-position of the benzazepine ring, to give the indolyldihydrobenz-azepine 2.21 In fact, adduct 2 is the major product from the reaction of 1-mcthylindole with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate in acetonitrile. Similar adducts are obtained with indole. 

Prim, und sek. aromatische Amine werden durch Carbonsauren in Gegenwart von Na-triumboranat ebenfalls reduktiv alkyliert. Die Reaktion gelingt auch bei Indol, da zuerst die Enamin-Doppelbindung gesattigt wird. 

A novel route to indoles and quinolines has been developed by sequential Wiltig and Heck reactions <96CC2253>. Thus, treatment of o-bromo- or iodo-lV-lrifluoroaceiylanilines (86) with a stabilized phosphorane affords the corresponding enamines 87 as a mixture of isomers. Cyclization to 88 is effected by heating with palladium acetate, tri phenyl phosphine, and bu.se. 

This new impurity proved to be derived from the Pd-catalyzed oxidation of DIPA to the enamine via P-hydride elimination. In fact, mixing Pd(OAc)2 with DIPA in DMF-d7 readily formed Pd black along with two species, primary amine and acetone, presumably derived from the enamine through hydrolysis. The resulting enamine or acetone then underwent a coupling reaction with iodoaniline 28. Heterocyclization through the arylpalladium(II) species provided 2-methyl indole 71, as shown in Scheme 4.19. 

Since the amine by-product formation was essentially derived from the reaction of an enamine or a ketone with iodoaniline, the direct use of a ketone as the substrate instead of an amine, would also be expected to yield the indole (Scheme 4.21). Indeed, we were gratified to find that direct condensation of o-iodoaniline 24 (77, R, = H) with cyclohexanone (in the presence of 5mol% Pd(OAc)2 and 3 equiv DAB CO as a base at 0.3 M and 105 °C afforded the tetrahydrocarbazole 81a in 77% yield with no other major impurities (Figure 4.4) [5], The use of DMF as a solvent is crucial to the success of this reaction other solvents such as acetonitrile and toluene were ineffective. 

MgS04, the tetracycles 2-648 were obtained with excellent diastereoselectivity in reasonable yield. The reaction presumably starts with a condensation of the aldehydes 2-645 with the benzyl-protected amine moiety of 2-644 to give an iminium ion which can subsequently cyclize to afford the spirocyclic intermediates 2-646. A [3,3] sigmatropic Cope rearrangement then forms the nine-membered cyclic enamines 2-647 which, after protonation, act as the starting point for another indole iminium cyclization to provide the tetracycles 2-648 via 2-647. 

Enamine fragments present in quinolizine systems show their expected behavior as nucleophiles. For example, reaction of the indoloquinolizine derivative 78 with formaldehyde at room temperature afforded the unstable hydroxymethyl derivative 79, while reflux of 78 with formaldehyde under acidic conditions led to indole deprotection and allowed the isolation of the pentacyclic derivative 80 (Scheme 4) <2001TL7237>. 

Acylation of the tryptamine-based /3-enamino esters 458 with acryloyl chloride and its derivatives results in acylation of the enamine nitrogen and formation of the pyridiniminium ion intermediate 459. Electrophilic attack at C-3 of the indole and rearrangement of the spiro intermediate gives the indoloquinolizines 460 (Scheme 102) <2003TL6527>. 

Individual substitutions may not necessarily be true electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions. Usually it is assumed that they are, however, and with this assumption the furan nucleus can be compared with others. For tri-fluoroacetylation by trifluoroacetic anhydride at 75 C relative rates have been established, by means of competition experiments 149 thiophene, 1 selenophene, 6.5 furan, 1.4 x 102 2-methylfuran, 1.2 x 105 pyrrole, 5.3 x 107. While nitrogen is usually a better source of electrons for an incoming electrophile (as in pyrrole versus furan) there are exceptions. For example, the enamine 63 reacts with Eschenmoser s salt at the 5-position and not at the enamine grouping.150 Also amusing is an attempted Fischer indole synthesis in which a furan ring is near the reaction site and diverted the reaction into a pyrazole synthesis.151... 

Enamines are reduced to amines in good yields with Et3SiH/TFA.529 533 This reagent combination causes a variety of indoles to undergo stereoselective cis... 

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