Ketones, Henry groups

The enantioselective Henry reaction with ketones is challenging, owing to the attenuated reactivity of the ketone carbonyl group compared to the aldehyde carbonyl moiety and the high tendency of tertiary nitro-aldol adducts to undergo a retro-addition reaction under basic conditions [15], Stereoselective construction of... 

The nucleophilic addition of nitroalkane to carbonyl groups is known as the Henry reaction. The products of the Henry reaction are 2-nitroalkanols,115 which are useful intermediates for nitroalkenes, 2-amino alcohols, and 2-nitro-ketones. However, this does not always give high yields because of the possible O-alkylation in preference to C-alkylation during the Henry reaction. 

Most peptidyl a,a-difluoroalkyl ketones are actually extended chains based on statone, rather than simple difluoromethyl ketones. The statone derivatives are based on pepstatin, which is an extremely potent peptide inhibitor of aspartic proteases. The difluoro derivatives of statone take advantage of both the electronegativity of fluorine and the potential for additional interactions between the protease and structures on the leaving group side of the inhibitor. 15 This dual nature is part of what makes a,a-difluoroalkyl ketones effective inhibitors of aspartyl proteases as well as serine proteases. There are three main methods of synthesizing peptidyl a,a-difluoroalkyl ketones (1) the Reformatsky reaction with peptide aldehydes (Section 15.1.4.2.1), (2) a modified Dakin-West reaction (Section 15.1.4.2.2), and (3) a Henry nitro-aldol condensation (Section 15.1.4.2.3). 

Similar to the Dakin-West procedure previously mentioned, the Henry nitro-aldol condensation reaction is most widely used to synthesize trifluoromethyl ketones, although there are many examples of a,a-difluoroalkyl ketones synthesized by this method (Table 6)JU 12271 The method for a,a-difluoroalkyl and trifluoromethyl ketone synthesis is identical except for the final oxidation although fluoroalkyl and a,a-difluoroalkyl ketones are easily oxidized by the Sarett method (Cr03/pyridine),[12 the corresponding trifluoromethyl ketones can only be oxidized under basic conditions (0.3 M NaOH) with KMn04Jul Also, in some of the syntheses of a,a-difluoroalkyl ketones, the nitro alcohol intermediate was protected by si-lylation with /ert-butylchlorodimethylsilane. The silyl group was later removed by TosOH prior to oxidation. The full details of this method are given in Section 15.1.4.3.2. 

Table 1 lists several compounds and their Henry s constants taken from Ashworth et al. [5]. For compounds of similar structure, heavier compounds tend to have smaller Henry s constant values. For compounds of similar size, those with polar functional groups (e.g., oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur) tend to have smaller Henry s constant values. This explains why methyl ethyl ketone (MW=72) has a Henry s constant that is orders of magnitude less than chloroethane (MW=64). 

The nitroaldol (Henry) reaction, first described in 1859, is a carbon-carbon bondforming reaction between an aldehyde or ketone and a nitroalkane, leading to a nitroalcohol adduct [29]. The nitroalcohol compounds, synthetically versatile functionalized structural motifs, can be transformed to many important functional groups, such as 1,2-amino alcohols and a-hydroxy carboxylic acids, common in chemical and biological structures [18, 20, 30, 31]. Because of their important structural transformations, new synthetic routes using transition metal catalysis and enzyme-catalyzed reactions have been developed to prepare enantiomerically pure nitroaldol adducts [32-34]. 

The a-hydrogens of nitroalkanes are appreciably acidic due to resonance stabilization of the anion [CH3NO2, 10.2 CH3CH2NO2, 8.5]. The anions derived from nitroalkanes give typical nucleophilic addition reactions with aldehydes (the Henry-Nef tandem reaction). Note that the nitro group can be changed directly to a carbonyl group via the Nef reaction (acidic conditions). Under basic conditions, salts of secondary nitro compounds are converted into ketones by the pyridine-HMPA complex of molybdenum (VI) peroxide. Nitronates from primary nitro compounds yield carboxylic acids since the initially formed aldehyde is rapidly oxidized under the reaction conditions. 

The synthesis of the bisbenzannelated spiroketal core of the y-rubromycins was achieved by the research team of C.B. de Koning." The key step was the Nef reaction of a nitroolefin, which was prepared by the Henry reaction between an aromatic aldehyde and a nitroalkane. The nitroolefin was a mixture of two stereoisomers, and it was subjected to catalytic hydrogenation in the presence of hydrochloric acid. The hydrogenation accomplished two different tasks it first converted the nitroalkene to the corresponding oxime and removed the benzyl protecting groups. The oxime intermediate was hydrolyzed to a ketone that underwent spontaneous spirocyclization to afford the desired spiroketal product. 

The Henry reaction or the nitroaldol is a classical reaction where the a-anion of an alkyinitro compound reacts with an aldehyde or ketone to form a p-nitroalcohol adduct. Over the decades, the Henry reaction has been used to synthesize natural products and pharmaceutical intermediates. In addition, asyimnetric catalysis has allowed this venerable reaction to contribute to a plethora of stereoselective aldol condensations. Reviews (a) Ballini, R. Bosica, G. Fiorini, D. Palmieri, A. Front. Nat. Prod. Chem. 2005, 1, 37-41. (b) Ono, N. In The Nitro Group in Organic Synthesis Wiley-VCH Weinheim, 2001 Chapter 3 The Nitro-Aldol (Henry) Reaction, pp. 30-69. (c) Luzzio, F. A. Tetrahedron 2001, 57, 915-945. 

The utilization of carbanions stabilized by various electron-withdrawing groups to effect carbon-carbon bond formation occupies a central position in organic synthesis. This chapter focuses on the reactions of nitro-stabilized carbanions (nitronate anions or their equivalents) with aldehydes and ketones. This route for the coupling of a carbonyl and a nitroalkane component, leading to vicinal nitro alcohols, was discovered in 1895 by Henry and is currently known as the Henry or nitroaldol reaction. 

More recently, the use of high pressure with tetra-n-butylammonium fluoride as catalyst allowed these reactions to be accomplished with cyclic ketones. Thus, the Henry reaction of nitroalkanes with 3- and 4-methylcyclohexanones in THF at 30 C and 9 kbar (1 bar = 100 kPa) afforded fair to high yields (60-90% after 4 d) of the corresponding nitro alcohols, while with 2-methyIcyclohexanones it was possible to obtain addition products, although in moderate yields. These facts explain the modest utility of the Henry reaction as a chain-lengthening reaction when the carbonyl component is a ketone, but also show the difference in reactivity of aldehyde and ketone C==0 groups with respect to nitromethane, primary and secondary nitroalkanes in the presence of a base as catalyst. Such a difference in reactivity can be considered as the most evident chemoselectivity of this reaction. 

The nitroaldol (Henry) reaction involves the addition of nitronates to aldehydes and ketones to give a P-nitroalcohol. These products are usefrd synthetic building blocks as the nitro group can be transformed into a range of other functional groups, and this has stimulated some recent research into the development of a catalytic asymmetric variant. Some of the catalyst systems used in the asymmetric aldol rection have been successfully employed in the catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol process. 

The utility of this method also stems from the fact that the nitro group enables C—C bond formation prior to the rearrangement. Michael addition of the anion derived from 276 to methyl vinyl ketone led to allylic nitro compound 277, which rearranged to allylic alcohol 278 in hi yield and excellent diastereoselectivity. Meanwhile, a single diastereomer of the bicyclic framework 280 was available under thermodynamic control from nitro aldehyde 279 via reversible Henry reaction, and transposition of the allylic nitro stereocenter to allylic alcohol 281 resulted from the suprafacial nature of the ensuing [2,3]-rearrangement. 

The asymmetric reaction of nitromethane with aldehydes as well as activated ketones (e.g., trifluoroacetophenone and a-ketoesters) is possible with various chiral metallic complexes or organocatalysts under atmospheric pressure with good yield and enantioselectivity. However, the Henry reaction of aryl alkyl ketones still remains problematic and challenging. Matsumoto s group also tested the very difficult reaction of acetophenone and nitromethane with quinidine. No product was observed under Ibar and only traces at 7 kbar, but application of 10 kbar resulted in a significant improvement in yield (31%) -unfortunately, no enantioselectivity was detected (Scheme 21.3). 

The Henry reaction is a base-catalyzed C-C bond-forming reaction between nitroalkanes and aldehydes or ketones. It is similar to the aldol addition, and is also referred to as the nitroaldol reaction. Since its discovery in 1895 [1] the Henry reaction has become one of the most useful reactions for the formation of C-C bonds, and most particularly for the synthesis of P-nitroalcohol derivatives [2]. The general features of this reaction are (i) the potential offered by the nitro and hydroxyl groups on the products for transformation into other compound families such as P-amino alcohols, P-amino acids, or nitroalkenes (ii) only a catalytic amount of base is required (iii) up to two contiguous stereogenic centers may be created in a single step concomitantly to the C-C bond formation. Several recent reviews with a focus on the asymmetric Henry reaction and its applications have appeared [3j. 

Fluorinated amino acids and amino alcohols have shown extensive biological activity [18]. In 2008, the Bandini and Umani-Ronchi group developed an efficient Henry reaction between nitromethane and fluoromethyl ketones catalyzed by cinchona alkaloids [19]. They showed that benzoylcupreines bearing electron-withdrawing substituents at the C9 position of the catalyst structure are essential for good results (Table 29.2,14 versus 15). Remarkably, comparable levels of asymmetric induction could be obtained with both aromatic and aliphatic ketones. 

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