Lithium aluminum hydride acetals

Carboxylic acids are exceedingly difficult to reduce Acetic acid for example is often used as a solvent in catalytic hydrogenations because it is inert under the reaction con ditions A very powerful reducing agent is required to convert a carboxylic acid to a pri mary alcohol Lithium aluminum hydride is that reducing agent... 

Enamines of A" -3-ketones (45) are stable to lithium aluminum hydride, but lithium borohydride reduces the 3,4-double bond of the enamine system." In the presence of acetic acid the enamine (45) is reduced by sodium borohydride to the A -3-amine (47) via the iminium cation (46). ... 

The properties of chlorine azide resemble those of bromine azide. Pon-sold has taken advantage of the stronger carbon-chlorine bond, i.e., the resistance to elimination, in the chloro azide adducts and thus synthesized several steroidal aziridines. 5a-Chloro-6 -azidocholestan-3 -ol (101) can be converted into 5, 6 -iminocholestan-3l -ol (102) in almost quantitative yield with lithium aluminum hydride. It is noteworthy that this aziridine cannot be synthesized by the more general mesyloxyazide route. Addition of chlorine azide to testosterone followed by acetylation gives both a cis- and a trans-2iddMct from which 4/S-chloro-17/S-hydroxy-5a-azidoandrostan-3-one acetate (104) is obtained by fractional crystallization. In this case, sodium borohydride is used for the stereoselective reduction of the 3-ketone... 

An alternate method of producing the 21-hydroxy-20-ketone consists in lithium aluminum hydride reduction of the dimethyl acetal, hydrolysis to the 20-hydroxy-21-aldehyde and rearrangement, preferably via the bisulfite addition product... 

LY311727 is an indole acetic acid based selective inhibitor of human non-pancreatic secretory phospholipase A2 (hnpsPLA2) under development by Lilly as a potential treatment for sepsis. The synthesis of LY311727 involved a Nenitzescu indolization reaction as a key step. The Nenitzescu condensation of quinone 4 with the p-aminoacrylate 39 was carried out in CH3NO2 to provide the desired 5-hydroxylindole 40 in 83% yield. Protection of the 5-hydroxyl moiety in indole 40 was accomplished in H2O under phase transfer conditions in 80% yield. Lithium aluminum hydride mediated reduction of the ester functional group in 41 provided the alcohol 42 in 78% yield. 

The procedure given above is applied to norbornene. However, the formation of the alcohol is accompanied by formation of moderate amounts of the acetate. Therefore, the dried tetrahydrofuran solution of the alcohol-acetate mixture is treated with 0.4 g (O.OI mole) of lithium aluminum hydride dissolved in 10 ml ofTHF. The excess hydride is decomposed by careful addition of water, followed by filtration, drying of the organic solution, and evaporation of the solvent. The residue is almost pure (>99.8%) exo-1-norborneol. It may be purified by direct distillation, bp 178-17971 atm, crystallizing slowly on cooling, mp 127-128°. 

The vinyl ether may be further purified by dissolving it in 15 ml of dry ether and adding a solution of 0.25 g of lithium aluminum hydride in 10 ml of dry ether. The mixture is refluxed for 30 minutes, and excess hydride is destroyed by addition of ethyl acetate (1 ml). Ice-cold dilute (0.5 N) sulfuric acid (25 ml) is gradually added to the cooled mixture, the ethereal layer is rapidly separated, the aqueous layer is extracted once with 10 ml of ether, and the combined ethereal solution is washed once with water and dried over potassium carbonate. Removal of the solvent, followed by distillation of the residue affords about 85% recovery of the pure vinyl ether, bp 102-10376 mm, 1.5045. 

Alternatively, 25.0 g of either 3j3,5a-dihydroxy-17a-methyl-17j3-carbomethoxyandrostan-6-one (Ilia) or 25.0 g of its 3)3-acetate (Hlb), are dissolved in dry tetrahydrofuran (1,250 ml, freshly distilled over lithium aluminum hydride) and dry benzene (2,000 ml) is added. Methyl magnesium bromide in ether solution (3 M, 750 ml) is added to the stirred solution and the resulting mixture is stirred at room temperature for 16 hours. An additional quantity of methyl magnesium bromide solution in ether (2M, 375 ml) is added, and 1,250 ml of the solvent mixture are distilled off. The resulting mixture is refluxed for 5 hours and worked up as described above, yielding compound (V) as a colorless oil. 

The dicyclobutanecarbonyl derivative (136.7 g) was dissolved in 200 ml of tetrahydrofuran and added dropwise to a suspension of 34.2 g of lithium aluminum hydride in 1 liters of tetrahydrofuran. The temperature of the mixture rose to reflux during the addition. Reflux was maintained for 2 hours after the addition was completed. After cooling, 110 ml of ethyl acetate was added dropwise, followed by 30 ml of water, followed by a solution of 53 g of ammonium chloride in 125 ml of water. The resulting mixture was filtered and the inorganic precipitate was washed with methanol. Evaporation of the combined filtrates gave 66 g of N-cyclobutYlmethyl-14-hYdroxydihydronormorphinone, melting point 229 to 231 . ... 

Butylcyclohexanol has been prepared from />-/-butylphenol by reduction under a variety of conditions.3 4 Winstein and Holness5 prepared the pure trans alcohol from the commercial alcohol by repeated crystallization of the acid phthalate followed by saponification of the pure trans ester. Eliel and Ro 6 obtained 4-f-butylcyclohexanol containing 91% of the trans isomer by lithium aluminum hydride reduction of the ketone. Iliickel and Kurz 7 reduced />-/-butylphenol with platinum oxide in acetic acid and then separated the isomers by column chromatography. 

The synthesis of the right-wing sector, compound 4, commences with the prochiral diol 26 (see Scheme 4). The latter substance is known and can be conveniently prepared in two steps from diethyl malonate via C-allylation, followed by reduction of the two ethoxy-carbonyl functions. Exposure of 26 to benzaldehyde and a catalytic amount of camphorsulfonic acid (CSA) under dehydrating conditions accomplishes the simultaneous protection of both hydroxyl groups in the form of a benzylidene acetal (see intermediate 32, Scheme 4). Interestingly, when benzylidene acetal 32 is treated with lithium aluminum hydride and aluminum trichloride (1 4) in ether at 25 °C, a Lewis acid induced reduction takes place to give... 

The combination of the enantiomerically pure 7V-methylephedrine derived silylketene acetal l-[(l/ ,2S)-2-dimethylamino-1-phenylpropoxy]-l-triniethylsilyloxy-l-propene with the chiral aldehyde (,R)-3-benzyloxy-2-methylpropanal leads, after reduction with lithium aluminum hydride, to the formation of a single 1,3-pentanediol 9 ( matched pair ). 

Although catalytic hydrogenation is the method most often used, double bonds can be reduced by other reagents, as well. Among these are sodium in ethanol, sodium and rerr-butyl alcohol in HMPA, lithium and aliphatic amines (see also 15-14), " zinc and acids, sodium hypophosphate and Pd-C, (EtO)3SiH—Pd(OAc)2, trifluoroacetic acid and triethylsilane (EtsSiH), and hydroxylamine and ethyl acetate.However, metallic hydrides, such as lithium aluminum hydride and sodium borohydride, do not in general reduce carbon-carbon double bonds, although this can be done in special cases where the double bond is polar, as in 1,1-diarylethenes and in enamines. " °... 

The preparation of Pans-1,2-cyclohexanediol by oxidation of cyclohexene with peroxyformic acid and subsequent hydrolysis of the diol monoformate has been described, and other methods for the preparation of both cis- and trans-l,2-cyclohexanediols were cited. Subsequently the trans diol has been prepared by oxidation of cyclohexene with various peroxy acids, with hydrogen peroxide and selenium dioxide, and with iodine and silver acetate by the Prevost reaction. Alternative methods for preparing the trans isomer are hydroboration of various enol derivatives of cyclohexanone and reduction of Pans-2-cyclohexen-l-ol epoxide with lithium aluminum hydride. cis-1,2-Cyclohexanediol has been prepared by cis hydroxylation of cyclohexene with various reagents or catalysts derived from osmium tetroxide, by solvolysis of Pans-2-halocyclohexanol esters in a manner similar to the Woodward-Prevost reaction, by reduction of cis-2-cyclohexen-l-ol epoxide with lithium aluminum hydride, and by oxymercuration of 2-cyclohexen-l-ol with mercury(II) trifluoro-acetate in the presence of ehloral and subsequent reduction. ... 

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