Reduction cyclopropyl ketones

Unusual reduction of eyclopropyl phenyl ketone. Cyclopropyl ketones are reduced by Li-NHa with cleavage of the cyclopropane ring for example, cyclopropyl methyl ketone is reduced to pentanone-2 and pentanol-2. Unexpectedly cyclopropyl phenyl ketone is reduced without cleavage (equation I). ... 

Reductive opening of the cyclopropyl ring in 9j5,19-cycloandrostan-ll-one (234) has been achieved by treatment with a large excess of sodium in iso-propanol-OD. Analysis of the product for isotopic purity after oxidation to the corresponding ketone and base-catalyzed back exchange of the 9a-deuterium [(235) (236)] shows 19% do and 10% 62 isotopic impurities. The 10% 62 product is probably due to incomplete back exchange. 

Treatment of oc-cyclopropyl ketones with lithium in a mixture of N,N-d2 propylamine and hexamethylphosphortriamide is a recently reported method for deuterium labeling via reductive ring opening. This reaction provides y-labeled ketones in good yield (70-100%) and isotopic purity (85-93%). 

Cyclopropanes can be cleaved by catalytic hydrogenolysis. Among the catalysts used have been Ni, Pd, and Pt. The reaction can often be run under mild condi-tions." ° Certain cyclopropane rings, especially cyclopropyl ketones and aryl-substituted cyclopropanes," can be reductively cleaved by an alkali metal (generally Na or Li) in liquid anunonia." Similar reduction has been accomplished photo-chemically in the presence of LiC104." ... 

Section 1.1.1.3.1.1.2.1.). Similarly, the reductive ring opening of cyclopropyl ketones, e.g., 8, with lithium in ammonia affords specific enolates20,21. These enolates can, of course, be used for selective alkylation. Furthermore, enol acetates, e.g., 10, are regiospecifically obtained by nucleophilic ring opening of cyclopropyl ketones21. 

Chiral 2,2-disubstituted cyclobutanones have been obtained by asymmetric rearrangement of chiral sulfinyl- 177,178 and sulfanylcyclopropanes.179 Using readily available cyclopropyl 4-tolyl (/ )-sulfoxide (l),180 the requisite sulfinylcyclopropanes 3 and 3 were obtained by a sequence of lithiation, reaction with carboxylic acid esters and stereoselective addition of Grignard reagents to the ketones 2 thus formed.178 The corresponding sulfanylcyclopropanes 4 and 4 resulted from a sequence of protection, reduction and deprotection.179... 

Cleavage of cyclopropyl ketones.8 Cyclopropyl ketones are converted by lSi(CH3)3 under very mild conditions into y-iodo ketones. The regioselectivity is usually high and is similar to that observed in lithium-ammonia reductions. 

The intramolecular cyclopropanation of appropriate y,(5-unsaturated a-diazoketones following a stereoselective catalytic reduction of the cyclopropyl ketone group provides a useful approach in diterpenoid synthesis. Some examples of the use of the cyclopropanation-reductive cleavage approach in synthesis are shown in equations 67 and 68l0f103. 

The method is a modification of one used by Barton and McCombie.8 Reduction of ketones.9 Ketones can be reduced to alcohols by Bu3SnH in the presence of either AIBN or a Lewis acid, but this reaction is limited to unhindered ketones. However, even sterically hindered ketones, such as f-butyl methyl ketone, can be reduced under high pressure (10 kbar) in the absence of a catalyst. This method is particularly useful in the case of cyclopropyl and a,p-epoxy ketones, which are reduced to the corresponding alcohols. Reduction of these ketones with Bu3SnH under radical conditions results in ring-opened products. 

This section covers the reduction of aldehydes and ketones, in complex molecules using hydride transfer reagents. Many of these are complex reagents designed specifically for particular reactions. LAH has been used for the reduction of cyclopropyl ketones199. Trialkyltin moieties in the cyclopropane ring cause diastereoselective reduction to occur (equation 51). 

The reductive opening of a cyclopropane ring of a conjugated cyclopropyl ketone with lithium in liquid ammonia can be viewed as an overall two electrons reduction which yields the equivalent of a carbanion and an enolate ion (cf. 237). Successive protonations of 237 then gives the reduced ketone. 

Norin (71) and Dauben and collaborators (72-74) have shown that the bond of the cyclopropane ring which is reductively cleaved corresponds to the bond which better overlaps with the n system of the adjacent carbonyl group. Thus, when the cyclopropyl ketone exists preferentially in the cisofd and transold conformations described by the Newman projections 238 and 239, the Cq — Cg bond is always cleaved in preference to the Cq— C3 bond. 

Dauben and Wolf (73) have also studied the chemical reduction of a series of acyclic cyclopropyl ketones 1252-254) with lithium in liquid ammonia. 

MISCELLANEOUS REACTIONS OF DIHYDROPYRIDINES Additional tests for net hydride transfers initiated by single-electron transfer include the use of substrates in which such pathways would necessarily involve readily ring-opened cyclopropylmethyl or readily cyclized 5-hexenyl radicals. Products from these radical reactions are not formed in NAD+/ NADH dependent enzymic reductions or oxidations (Maclnnes et al., 1982, 1983 Laurie et al., 1986 Chung and Park, 1982). Such tests have also been applied in non-enzymic reductions. Thus cyclopropane rings in cyclopropyl 2-pyridyl ketones, or imines of formylcyclopropane (van Niel and Pandit, 1983, 1985 Meijer et al., 1984) survive Mg+2 catalysed reduction by BNAH or Hantzsch esters but are opened by treatment with tributylin hydride. 

The thiophene can be considered a four-carbon synthon via reductive desulfurization with Raney nickel. A strategy using the thiophene as a lynch-pin for the construction of complex building blocks was utilized in a total synthesis of the cytotoxic sponge metabolite haliclamine A <02JOC6474>. Thienyl cyclopropyl ketone (108) was elaborated into 109. Reduction of 109 with Raney Ni gave 110 which was taken on to haliclamine A. 

Additional support for an alternative alkene first mechanism in these cyclisations came from the successful cyclisation of cyclopropyl ketone 26 with no observance of fragmentation products (Scheme 5.21).43 This suggests that a ketyl radical anion is not formed during the cyclisation and that reduction of the alkene leads to product formation. 

The ring expansion of the benzoxepinones 134 to benzoxocinones 136 involved a cyclopropanation with diazomethane in the presence of palladium acetate and a catalytic hydrogenation. The cleavage of the more labile internal bond in the cyclopropyl derivatives 135 leads to the eight-membered ketones 136 exclusively in excellent yields (90-95%). Reduction of ketones 136 with sodium borohydride affords the hydroxy derivatives 137 in a stereo-controlled manner (Scheme 34) <2002CC634>. 

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