Luche

J.-L. Luche, 1978) to give allylic alcohols. L1AIH4 itself tends to reduce the C = C double bond. 

Synthetically useful stereoselective reductions have been possible with cyclic carbonyl compounds of rigid conformation. Reduction of substituted cyclohexanone and cyclopentan-one rings by hydrides of moderate activity, e.g. NaBH (J.-L. Luche, 1978), leads to alcohols via hydride addition to the less hindered side of the carbonyl group. Hydrides with bulky substituents 3IQ especially useful for such regio- and stereoselective reductions, e.g. lithium hydrotri-t-butoxyaluminate (C.H. Kuo, 1968) and lithium or potassium tri-sec-butylhydro-borates or hydrotri-sec-isoamylborates (=L-, K-, LS- and KS-Selectrides ) (H.C. Brown, 1972 B C.A. Brown, 1973 S. Krishnamurthy, 1976). 

Schemes 28 and 29 illustrate Curran s synthesis of ( )-hirsutene [( )-1]. Luche reduction58 of 2-methylcyclopentenone (137), followed by acetylation of the resulting allylic alcohol, furnishes allylic acetate 138. Although only one allylic acetate stereoisomer is illustrated in Scheme 28, compound 138 is, of course, produced in racemic form. By way of the powerful Ireland ester enolate Clai-sen rearrangement,59 compound 138 can be transformed to y,S-unsaturated tm-butyldimethylsilyl ester 140 via the silyl ketene acetal intermediate 139. In 140, the silyl ester function and the methyl-substituted ring double bond occupy neighboring regions of space, a circumstance that favors a phenylselenolactonization reac-...

If it is assumed that the Mitsunobu glycosidation reaction described above proceeds through an SN2-type process with inversion of configuration at the anomeric position, then it follows that the desired / -glycoside can be formed selectively if pure a-lactol 17 is used in the reaction. Unfortunately, the /Mactol isomer of 17 is thermodynamically more stable than the a-diastereoisomer and is formed almost exclusively if the system is allowed to fully equilibrate. In the protic medium used for the Luche reduction, a signifi-... 

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