Lycorine, synthesis

There are many examples of such reactions being used in synthesis. Often many new chiral centres are established in one step as in the lycorine synthesis of Boeckmann.20 The starting material 118 is prepared by elimination on the spirocyclic ammonium salt 117 and contains no 3D... 

Lycorine is the most abundant alkaloid in plants of the Amaryllidaceae. Several syntheses of racemic lycorine had been reported prior to our initiation of studies directed at an asymmetric synthesis of the unnatural enantiomer 64. 2 a common theme in all of the syntheses of ( )-lycorine has been the utilization of either an intermolecular or intramolecular Diels-Alder construction of the key C-ring of the alkaloid. This six-membered ring presents a rather formidable synthetic challenge because of the four contiguous stereogenic centers, the trans 1,2-diol moiety, and the juxtaposition of the aromatic substituent and the carbon-carbon double bond. 

The first asymmetric total synthesis of (+)-lycorine is outlined in Scheme 15. While our earlier applications of the Birch reduction-alkylation of chiral benzamide 5 were focused on target structures with a quaternary stereocenter derived from C(l) of the starting benzoic acid derivative, the synthesis of 64 demonstrates that the method also is applicable to the construction of chiral six-membered rings containing only tertiary and trigonal carbon atoms. s... 

Lycorine. Boeckman s particularly elegant synthesis [65] (Scheme 41) of the most abundant Amaryllidaceae alkaloid, (-)-lycorine (245) [66], known since 1877 [67], involved an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction of an appropriately functionalised azatrienic system. This approach (A + D - AD - ADCB) somewhat reminiscent of the one used by Stork for ( )-7-oxo-a-lycorane [68], possessed the virtue of establishing the correct stereochemistry of four... 

Scheme 41. Synthesis of ( )-lycorine (continued next page).

A recently published full account of another synthesis [69] of the same alkaloid starting from the /rans-cinnamic ester 264 represented a different approach (ACD -> ACDB) to ( )-lycorine (Scheme 42). An intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction of 264 in o-dichlorobenzene furnished the two diastereomeric lactones 265 (86%) and 266 (5%) involving the endo and exo modes of addition respectively. The transposition of the carbonyl group of 265 to 267 was achieved by reduction with lithium aluminium hydride, followed by treatment of the resulting diol with Fetizon s reagent, which selectively oxidised the less substituted alcohol to give isomeric 5-lactone 267. On exposure to iodine in alkaline medium 267 underwent iodolactonisation to afford the iodo-hydroxy y-lactone 268. The derived tetrahydropyranyl ether... 

Major advances in the total synthesis of representative members of this family have been made. Several syntheses of lycorine (1) have been reported (108,109,112,113,117), although there remain problems in the development of a concise strategy for the stereoselective functionalization of the C ring. Substances prepared during the development of entries to the lycorine-type alkaloids have been exploited as key intermediates for the syntheses of clivonine (187) (110) and hippeastrine (180) (140). Several routes to the dihydrolycoricidines 270 and 271... 

It should be noted that a relay synthesis of optically pure (-)-lycorine was also completed commencing with optically pure 66, which had been prepared from naturally occurring lycorine via the dihydrolycorine lactam 71 and the derived tosylate 72. The reduction of optically pure 66 resulted in the formation of a-dihydrocaranine (73) (108c). A straightforward synthesis of ( )-zephyranthine... 

The unsaturated lactam ester 62 was also employed in a modified synthesis of ( )-lycorine (1) (109). In the event, O-ethylation of 62 with excess Meerwein reagent followed by reduction of the resulting imidate 77 with either sodium borohydride/stannic chloride dietherate (111) or sodium borohydride/stannous chloride gave an intermediate secondary amine, which cyclized on heating in methanol containing K2C03 to provide the lactam 78 (Scheme 5). When 78 was... 

Another strategy for the synthesis of lycorine commenced with the Diels-Alder reaction of l-methylenedioxyphenyl-2-nitroethylene with butadiene to provide the cyclohexene derivative 85, which on reaction with MCPBA gave 86 together with the diastereomeric epoxide (1 1) (Scheme 6) (112). Hydrogena-... 

The cyclohexene 121, which was readily accessible from the Diels-Alder reaction of methyl hexa-3,5-dienoate and 3,4-methylenedioxy-(3-nitrostyrene (108), served as the starting point for another formal total synthesis of ( )-lycorine (1) (Scheme 11) (113). In the event dissolving metal reduction of 121 with zinc followed by reduction of the intermediate cyclic hydroxamic acid with lithium diethoxyaluminum hydride provided the secondary amine 122. Transformation of 122 to the tetracyclic lactam 123 was achieved by sequential treatment with ethyl chloroformate and Bischler-Napieralski cyclization of the resulting carbamate with phosphorus oxychloride. Since attempts to effect cleanly the direct allylic oxidation of 123 to provide an intermediate suitable for subsequent elaboration to ( )-lycorine (1) were unsuccessful, a stepwise protocol was devised. Namely, addition of phenylselenyl bromide to 123 in acetic acid followed by hydrolysis of the intermediate acetates gave a mixture of two hydroxy se-lenides. Oxidative elimination of phenylselenous acid from the minor product afforded the allylic alcohol 124, whereas the major hydroxy selenide was resistant to oxidation and elimination. When 124 was treated with a small amount of acetic anhydride and sulfuric acid in acetic acid, the main product was the rearranged acetate 67, which had been previously converted to ( )-lycorine (108). 

Recent advances in the chemistry of alkaloids of the Amaryllidaceae have been mostly concerned with synthesis, and substantia] progress has again occurred in this area during the year now under review two new syntheses of the lycorine ring system and a synthesis of tazettine are particularly noteworthy. 

Umezawa and co-workers9 have reported a new synthesis of the tetracyclic lactam (19), which is a key intermediate in Torssell s synthesis of lycorine (cf. Vol. 9, p. 139) the Japanese work (Scheme 2), therefore, represents a formal synthesis of the alkaloid. The cyclohexyl isocyanate (15) (trans-diequatorial aryl and isocyanate groups) cyclized to a tricyclic lactam, which by reduction with a hydride and hydrolysis gave the ketone (18). The tetracyclic ketone (16) was converted into the 2,3-ene (17) by a Cope elimination reaction, and the synthesis of compound (19) was completed by transposition of the lactam carbonyl group from C-5 to C-7. 

A disappointing feature of Stork s synthesis of the lycorine ring system by intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction of a tricyclic intermediate was that the natural stereoisomer was not the major product of ring-closure (cf. Vol. 10,... 

Several approaches to the synthesis of lycorine (1) have been reported over the past few years. 

The synthesis of the tetracyclic intermediate 49 was therefore studied in the hope that it might further cyclize to the desired lycorine skeleton. Birch reduction of o,p-dimethoxyphenethylamine led to the amine 50 which was converted into 51, giving rise in turn upon hydrolysis to 49. Its structure rests on physical data. Ordinary methods for nitro group reduction seemed to also destroy the 289-nm chromophore, but hydrogen transfer (a-phellandrene and Pd/C) gave a product which analyzed for the product of nitro reduction to amine in 49, the mass spectrometric data also being in agreement. The product was, however, not affected by diazotization, and, on the basis of spectral data, was... 

This group has been included in a review that describes the synthesis of several types of alkaloids by intramolecular radical-coupling reactions.1 A review of the total synthesis of lycorine and related alkaloids is not easily accessible.2... 

The pyrrolo-isoquinoline (24) has been prepared as part of efforts directed towards the total synthesis of lycorine (Scheme 2).9 Treatment of the chloro-... 

A number of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids, including haemanthamine, lycorine, narciclasine, and pretazettine, have been shown to inhibit the fundamental step of the formation of a peptide bond in protein synthesis.14... 

The recent synthesis of lycorine (8) from the lactam (5) (cf. Vol. 10, p. 136) has now been modified by conversion of the six-membered lactam (5) into the five-membered lactam (6).4 Functionalization of ring C by the epoxidation-diphenyl selenide procedure, as in the earlier synthesis, gave the lactam (7), which was reduced to lycorine (Scheme 1). 

The phenanthridine alkaloid lycorine (narcissine, galanthidine) (MD—Phe G5N C6) has a widespread occurrence and inhibits protein synthesis. Like lycorine, the structurally similar alkaloids dihydrolycorinine, haemanthamine, narciclasine, pretazettine and pseudolycorine also inhibit protein synthesis at the level of peptide bond formation. Galanthamine (lycorimine) (Phe C6N C40 C6 ), from daffodil bulbs but also of widespread occurrence, is both a nACh-R allosteric modulator and an inhibitor of AChE. Galanthamine is clinically employed in the treatment of Alzheimer s disease (dementia linked to deficiency in acetylcholine-mediated signalling in the central nervous system). 

The use of enamide photocyclization in the synthesis of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids has remained a basic study and so far limited only to the synthesis of the skeletons of lycorine and crinine, as well as intermediates in the total synthesis of haemanthidine and nortazettine, and some of the degradation products of these alkaloids. 

This method can be applied to the total synthesis of natural products. The lycorine alkaloids anhydrolycorinone and hippadine have a pyrrolo[3,2,l-de]phenanthridine framework and have been isolated from Amaryllidaceae plants [26]. Hippadine exhibits reversible inhibition of fertility in male rats. Diverse synthetic approaches to the pyrrolophenanthridine alkaloids have been developed because of their potent biological activities [27[. We applied the iron(O)-mediated arylamine cydization described above to a concise synthesis of anhydrolycorinone and hippadine (Scheme 15.7) [28]. 

Although one-electron oxidation of arenes by thallium trifluoroacetate presumably does not proceed via formation of a discrete aiylthallium bond, some examples involving oxidative cyclization mediated by thallium trifluoroacetate will be considered here. Schwartz and Hudec employed thallium trifluoroacetate to effect an intramolecular cyclization of the amide (41) to give a key intermediate (42) in their projected synthesis of lycorine alkaloids (Scheme 16). Interestingly, when the bromine was replaced by a hyctogen the yield was poorer. 

This reaction provided an important step in a recent stereospecific synthesis of 4, which contains the basic skeleton of lycorine (S). ... 

An interesting synthesis of the lycorine-type alkaloids (46) and (47) using the photocyclization of an enamido-ketone (44) as the key step has been reported (Scheme 5). Benzyne reaction of the phenethylamine (41) provided the indoline... 

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