Lithium aluminum hydride, acids Ketones

REDUCTION WITH LITHIUM ALUMINUM HYDRIDE Acidic Quenching. Reduction of Aldehydes and Ketones [ 5]... 

Another synthesis of the cortisol side chain from a C17-keto-steroid is shown in Figure 20. Treatment of a C3-protected steroid 3,3-ethanedyidimercapto-androst-4-ene-ll,17-dione [112743-82-5] (144) with a tnhaloacetate, 2inc, and a Lewis acid produces (145). Addition of a phenol and potassium carbonate to (145) in refluxing butanone yields the aryl vinyl ether (146). Concomitant reduction of the C20-ester and the Cll-ketone of (146) with lithium aluminum hydride forms (147). Deprotection of the C3-thioketal, followed by treatment of (148) with y /(7-chlotopetben2oic acid, produces epoxide (149). Hydrolysis of (149) under acidic conditions yields cortisol (29) (181). 

Lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH4) is the most powerful of the hydride reagents. It reduces acid chlorides, esters, lactones, acids, anhydrides, aldehydes, ketones and epoxides to alcohols amides, nitriles, imines and oximes to amines primary and secondary alkyl halides and toluenesulfonates to... 

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). ... 

A rather special procedure for the preparation of 21-hydroxy-20-ketopreg-nanes starts with the 17a-ethoxyethynyl-17 -hydroxy steroids described earlier. Free radical addition of ethanethiol to the triple bond, followed by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis and dehydration gives the 20-thioenol ether 21-aldehyde. This can be reduced with lithium aluminum hydride to the C-21 alcohol and then hydrolyzed to the C-20 ketone in the presence of mercuric chloride. The overall yield, without isolation of intermediates, is in the order of 50% ... 

The chemical reduction of enamines by hydride again depends upon the prior generation of an imonium salt (111,225). Thus an equivalent of acid, such as perchloric acid, must be added to the enamine in reductions with lithium aluminum hydride. Studies of the steric course (537) of lithium aluminum hydride reductions of imonium salts indicate less stereoselectivity in comparison with the analogous carbonyl compounds, where an equatorial alcohol usually predominates in the reduction products of six-membered ring ketones. 

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. 

A similar sequence starting with the acylation product (76) from metachlorophenylacetonitrile gives the halogenated tricyclic ketone 83. Condensation of that intermediate with ethyl bromoacetate in the presence of zinc (Reformatsky reaction) gives the hydroxyester 84. This product is then in turn dehydrated under acid conditions (85), saponified to the corresponding acid (86), and converted to the dimethyl-amide (87) by way of the acid chloride. The amide function is then reduced to the amine (88) with lithium aluminum hydride catalytic hydrogenation of the exocyclic double bond completes the synthesis of closiramine (89). This compound also exhibits antihistaminic activity. 

Reduction of carbonyl to methylene in aromatic ketones was also achieved by (dane prepared from lithium aluminum hydride and aluminum chloride [770], by soditim borohydride in triiluoroacetic acid [841 with triethylsilane in trifluoroacetic acid [555, 777], with sodium in refluxing ethanol [842], with zinc in hydrochloric acid [843] and with hydrogen iodide and phosphorus [227], geiibrally in good to high yields. 

However, most frequently used methods for reduction of aromatic ketones to hydrocarbons are, as in the case of other ketones, Clemmensen reduction [160, 161, 758, 843, 844] Procedure 31, p. 213), Wolff-Kizhner reduction [280,281,282, 759, 774,845] Procedure 45, p. 216), or reduction of p-toluene-sulfonylhydrazones of the ketones with lithium aluminum hydride [811, 812] or with borane and benzoic acid [786]. 

The reduction of a dinitro ketone to an azo ketone is best achieved with glucose. 2,2 -Dinitrobenzophenone treated with glucose in methanolic sodium hydroxide at 60° afforded 82% of dibenzo[c,f [i 2]diazepin-l 1-one whereas lithium aluminum hydride yielded 24% of bis(o-nitrophenyl)methanol [575], Conversion of aromatic nitro ketones with a nitro group in the ring into amino ketones has been achieved by means of stannous chloride, which reduced 4-chloro-3-nitroacetophenone to 3-amino-4-chloroacetophenone in 91% yield [178]. A more dependable reagent for this purpose proved to be iron which, in acidic medium, reduced m-nitroacetophenone to m-aminoacetophenone in 80% yield and o-nitrobenzophenone to o-aminobenzophenone in 89% yield (stannous chloride was unsuccessful in the latter case) [903]. Iron has also been used for the reduction of o-nitrochalcone, 3-(o-nitrophenyl)-l-phenyl-2-propen-l-one, to 3-(o-aminophenyl)-l-phenyl-2-propen-l-one in 80% yield [555]. 

Amides of keto acids were reduced to amides of hydroxy acids biochemically using Saccharomyces cerevisiae to give optically pure products [7059]. Refluxing with lithium aluminum hydride in ether for 6 hours reduced both the ketonic and the amidic carbonyl in A -methyl-5-phenyl-5-oxopentanamide and gave 82% yield of 5-methylamino-l-phenylpentanol [1134]. 

The reduction of carboxylic acids or esters requires very powerful reducing agents such as lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH,) or sodium (Na) metal. Aldehydes and ketones are easier to reduce, so they can use sodium borohy-dride (NaBH,j). Examples of these reductions are shown in Figure 3-13. 

Bromination to 4 and substitution of the bromine by an amine gives 5. Sodium borohydride reduction of the ketone to an alcohol 6 is followed by a resolution with (-)-di-/ -toluoyltartaric acid and reduction of the ester group with lithium aluminum hydride to give diol 7. Catalytic debenzylation gives albuterol, sometimes called salbutamol. 

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