Mannich reaction mechanisms

Studies of the reaction kinetics have led to the following proposals for the mechanism of the Mannich reaction. 

It is obvious that the Mannich reaction pathway and the immonium ion mechanism may occur simultaneously, especially at conditions of room temperature or greater. Formaldehyde-facilitated crosslinking reactions between molecules that both contain nucleophiles probably occur primarily by the immonium ion pathway, since the Mannich reaction proceeds at a slower rate. In addition, the Mannich reaction will cause nondescript polymerization between molecules that possess both active hydrogens and amine groups. It is best to utilize the Mannich reaction only when one of the molecules contains no nucleophilic groups but at least one active hydrogen, and the other molecule contains a primary or secondary amine. 

Addition of carbon nucleophiles to furfural tosylhydrazone provides 5-substituted 2E,4E-pentadienyls in good yields <00TL2667>. The ab initio calculations at the RHF/3-21G level have been utilized to study the origins of diastereoselectivity of the vinylogous Mannich reaction of 2-methylfuran with pyrrolinium ion . A simple procedure for isomerization of 2-furylcarbinols to cyclopentenones under neutral condition was reported and a new mechanism was proposed <00H(52)185>. 

IrCl2H(cod)]2 catalyzed the synthesis of substituted quinolines, where the reachon of aniline derivahves, aromatic and alkyl aldehydes efficiently proceeds under an oxygen atmosphere (Scheme 11.34) [46]. The plausible mechanism consists of a Mannich reaction, a Friedel-Craft-type aromahc substituhon, dehydration, and dehydrogenation. This can be recognized as a formal [4+2] cycloaddition of N-aryl imine and enol (Scheme 11.35). 

It is instructive to formulate a mechanism for this reaction note that two Mannich reactions are involved. The scheme below shows the sequence of events, though not all the steps are shown. 

The mechanism of imine formation is standard, as seen in the other examples. The cyclization reaction is then like the Mannich reaction, attack of an enol on to the iminium cation. This time though, the nucleophile is provided by the resonance effect from the phenol system. 

Interestingly, fundamentally different stereoinduction mechanisms have been proposed for the activation of a number of related imine substrates, studies that resulted in the development of simple and highly effective new catalytic systems (27) for the addition of silyl ketene acetals to Al-Boc-protected aldimines (Mannich reaction) (Scheme 11.12c). ... 

A Mannich reaction is the reaction of formaldehyde with a primary or secondary amine and a compound with an active hydrogen atom. The product, an amine with a y-carbonyl, is called a Mannich base, useful in a number of synthesis reactions. An example is in Figure 15-23, and the mechanism is in Figure 15-24. 

The mechanism of the Mannich reaction is similar to that of the Vilsmeier reaction as the electrophile is also a methyleniminium cation, formed this time from a condensation of dimethylamine and formaldehyde in acetic acid solution (Scheme 7.7a). This reacts with indole to yield 3-(A, 7V-dimethylaminomethyl)indole (although not shown, it is possible that initial attack occurs at N-1 and rearrangement of the side chain to C-3 takes place in a follow-up step) (Scheme 7.7b). Scheme 7.7... 

This is an example of a boronic-Mannich reaction. The mechanism is not fully established however it has been shown that an intermediate of the type ... 

List gave the first examples of the proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric three-component Mannich reactions of ketones, aldehydes, and amines (Scheme 14) [35], This was the first organocatalytic asymmetric Mannich reaction. These reactions do not require enolate equivalents or preformed imine equivalent. Both a-substituted and a-unsubstituted aldehydes gave the corresponding p-amino ketones 40 in good to excellent yield and with enantiomeric excesses up to 91%. The aldol addition and condensation products were observed as side products in this reaction. The application of their reaction to the highly enantioselective synthesis of 1,2-amino alcohols was also presented [36]. A plausible mechanism of the proline-catalyzed three-component Mannich reaction is shown in Fig. 2. The ketone reacts with proline to give an enamine 41. In a second pre-equilib-... 

Condensation of the active methyl group in acetophenone with formaldehyde and dimethylamine (in the form of its hydrochloride) is an example of the Mannich reaction (e.g. the synthesis of dimethylaminopropiophenone, Expt 6.147). The probable mechanism of the reaction involves the intermediate formation of the hydroxymethyldimethylamine which eliminates water to form the reactive species (1). This condenses with the a-carbon atom of acetophenone reacting in its enol form. 

Scheme 9.5. Plausible mechanism of the proline-catalyzed Mannich reaction.

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