Isoxazolium salts reduction

Isoxazoles are susceptible to attack by nucleophiles, the reactions involving displacement of a substituent, addition to the ring, or proton abstraction with subsequent ring-opening. Isoxazolium salts are even more susceptible to attack by a variety of nucleophiles, providing useful applications of the isoxazole nucleus in organic synthesis. Especially useful is the reductive cleavage of isoxazoles, which may be considered as masked 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds or enaminoketones. 

Sodium borohydride and 3-isoxazolium salts with a 3-unsubstituted position also give isoxazolines, as do the 3-substituted 5-unsubstituted derivatives. With the latter group, further reduction occurs to the isoxazolidines (74CPB70). 

When recent advances in the chemistry of isoxazoles were reviewed by Kochetkov and Sokolov1 in this Series in 1963 (and by Quilico2 in 1962), the main features of isoxazole chemistry had been established. Since then some important new discoveries have been made, but probably the most significant advances have concerned the exploitation of the known features of their chemistry in synthesis. Particularly noteworthy developments include the further application of the cycloaddition of nitrile oxides in the synthesis of isoxazoles (Section II,C and D), the use of isoxazolium salts in peptide synthesis (Section III,B,2), syntheses involving the products of reductive cleavage of isoxazoles as intermediates (Section III,D and E) and annelation reactions via deprotonation of alkylisoxazoles (Section 1II,E). 

The reduction of isoxazolium salts with metal hydrides is also not entirely predictable, and here the progress of the reaction depends on (i) the reagent, (ii) the solvent, and (Hi) the ring substituents. Generally, isoxazolium salts (119) on reduction with sodium borohydride in aqueous acetonitrile give 4-isoxazolines (120), their borane complexes, 3-isoxazolines (121), isoxazolidines (122), and minor amounts of 3-hydroxypropylamines (123). In some cases, however, particularly if the substituent group at C-3 is aryl and the reaction is carried out in ethanol rather than acetonitrile, the major products are... 

In general, synthesis of 4-isoxazolines is accomplished via three routes 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrones to alkynes or by the oximation of a,i -ethylenic ketones, a-alkynic ketones and aldehydes or from the selective reduction of isoxazolium salts. The nitrone (262) underwent tandem cyclo-addition-[2,3]sigmatropic rearrangement with allenyl sulfoxide (263). And it resulted in 4-isoxazoline (264) (Equation (46)) <89TL663>. 

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