Intramolecular reactions enamine proline catalysis

A different type of catalysis is observed using proline as a catalyst.166 Proline promotes addition of acetone to aromatic aldehydes with 65-77% enantioselectivity. It has been suggested that the carboxylic acid functions as an intramolecular proton donor and promotes reaction through an enamine intermediate. 

The delicateness of the aldol protocol has perhaps been one of the factors why enamine catalysis of the aldol reaction did not emerge nntil the 1970s. The Hajos-Parrish-Eder-Sauer-Wiechert reaction [30] (Scheme 16) was an important early example of an intramolecular enamine-catalyzed aldol reaction. However, it was not nntil 2000 when List, Barbas and Lemer demonstrated that the same reaction can also be performed in an intermolecular fashion, using proline as a simple enamine catalyst [26]. 

Enamine catalysis using proline or related catalysts has now been applied to both intermolecular and intramolecular nucleophilic addition reactions with a variety of electrophiles. In addition to carbonyl compounds (C = O), these include imines (C = N) in Mannich reactions (List 2000 List et al. 2002 Hayashi et al. 2003a Cordova et al. 2002c ... 

S.C. PanandB. List s paper spans the whole field of current organocat-alysts discussing Lewis and Brpnsted basic and acidic catalysts. Starting from the development of proline-mediated enamine catalysis— the Hajos-Parrish-Eder-Sauer-Wiechert reaction is an intramolecular transformation involving enamine catalysis—into an intermolecular process with various electrophilic reaction partners as a means to access cY-functionalized aldehydes, they discuss a straightforward classification of organocatalysts and expands on Brpnsted acid-mediated transformations, and describe the development of asymmetric counteranion-directed catalysis (ACDC). 

Type I aldolases activate the aldol donor by the formation of enamines with active site amino acids and an alternate approach to the direct catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction centres on mimicking this process using proline-based organocatalysts. In fact, one of the earliest examples of asymmetric catalysis uses (S)-profine (7.66) as a catalyst for the intramolecular aldol reaction (the Hajos-Eder-Saeur-Wiechert reaction).As an example the achiral triketone (7.67) cyclises to give the aldol product (7.68) with good enantioselectivity. 

Enamines have again been used to good effect in the construction of enantiopure, functionalized live-membered rings. List and co-workers [27, 28] have produced one of the few examples of an intramolecular alkylation using a secondary amine. As mentioned, alkylations have often proven difficult with this mode of catalysis owing to problems associated with A-alkylation of the catalyst itself. Interestingly in this system, such a side-reaction does not seem to have been a problem, and indeed proline itself catalyzed the reaction to good yield and reasonable enantioselectivity. 

In contrast to the early report of intramolecular desymmetrization reactions [6], the intramolecular ring-closing reactions of achiral substrates via enamine catalysis were not disclosed until the beginning of the twenty-first century. In 2003, list reported the first highly stereoselective intramolecular aldol reaction of achiral dicarbonyl compounds. Cyclic aldol products 6a-< were delivered from heptanedials 5 with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivity by the catalysis of L-proline (Scheme 36.2). The cyclization of ketoaldehyde 7 afforded alcohol 8 as a 2 1 diastereomeric mixture but with 99% ee. This strategy could provide P hydroxyl carbonyl derivatives that are of potential applications in organic synthesis [7aj. 

Following immediately the initial efforts on primary amino acids catalyzed aldol reactions, the application of primary amine acid in Mannich reaction has also been attempted. Cordova reported that simple primary amino acids and their derivatives could catalyze the asymmetric Mannich reactions of ketones with comparable results to those obtained in the catalysis of proline[28]. Later, Barbas [29] and Lu [30] independently reported that L-Trp or 0-protected L-Thr could catalyze anti-selective asymmetric Mannich reactions of a-hydroxyacetones with eiflier preformed or in-situ generated imines. The preference of anii-diastereoselectivity was ascribed to the formation of a Z-enamine, with the assistance of an intramolecular H-bond (Scheme 5.15). 

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