Menthol, chirality

Brimble and coworkers172 reported the asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions between quinones 265 bearing a menthol chiral auxiliary and cyclopentadiene (equation 73). When zinc dichloride or zinc dibromide was employed as the Lewis acid catalyst, the reaction proceeded with complete endo selectivity, but with only moderate diastereofacial selectivity affording 3 1 and 2 1 mixtures of 266 and 267 (dominant diastereomer unknown), respectively. The use of stronger Lewis acids, such as titanium tetrachloride, led to the formation of fragmentation products. Due to the inseparability of the two diastereomeric adducts, it proved impossible to determine which one had been formed in excess. 

The reaction of glyoxylates with furan can also be performed using chiral glyox-ylate. In particular, the use of 7 -(-)-menthol, chiral 2-octanol, and chiral 2,2-dimethyl-3-butanol as chiral auxiliaries gave the corresponding oxetanes in high yields. These compounds can be converted into the corresponding... 

Table 10 summarizes the data for the addition of various achiral tetraalkylaluminates (23) to chiral keto esters as oudined in equation (9). Presumably, the observed diastereoselectivities will reflect the inherent facial bias of the controlling chiral element, namely menthol (R in Table 10). In this case the diastereoselectivities are moderate (67 to 75%), but, since Corey, Oppolzer and WhiteselP have observed superior inherent facial selectivity for the 8-substituted menthol chiral auxiliary, it would be interesting to attempt the alkyl aluminate additions on substrates incorporating this auxiliary.

Hudlicky et al. created a chiral version of the Burgess reagent (63), that was exposed to meso-aliphatic epoxides, to afford a 1 1 mixture of cts-fused sulfamidate diastereoisomers (64, 65, M = menthol chiral auxiliary) in modest yield.18... 

L-Menthol [2216-51-5] (75) and D-menthol [15356-70-4] have been used as chiral auxiharies in the synthesis of optically active mandehc acids. Reduction of (-)-menthol ben2oylfomiate (76) with a stericaHy bulky reducing agent, ie, sodium bis(2-methylethoxy)aluminum hydride (RED-Al), followed by saponification, yields (R)-mandelic acid (32) of 90% ee. 

Danishefsky et al. were probably the first to observe that lanthanide complexes can catalyze the cycloaddition reaction of aldehydes with activated dienes [24]. The reaction of benzaldehyde la with activated conjugated dienes such as 2d was found to be catalyzed by Eu(hfc)3 16 giving up to 58% ee (Scheme 4.16). The ee of the cycloaddition products for other substrates was in the range 20-40% with 1 mol% loading of 16. Catalyst 16 has also been used for diastereoselective cycloaddition reactions using chiral 0-menthoxy-activated dienes derived from (-)-menthol, giving up to 84% de [24b,c] it has also been used for the synthesis of optically pure saccharides. 

Perhaps the most successful industrial process for the synthesis of menthol is employed by the Takasago Corporation in Japan.4 The elegant Takasago Process uses a most effective catalytic asymmetric reaction - the (S)-BINAP-Rh(i)-catalyzed asymmetric isomerization of an allylic amine to an enamine - and furnishes approximately 30% of the annual world supply of menthol. The asymmetric isomerization of an allylic amine is one of a large and growing number of catalytic asymmetric processes. Collectively, these catalytic asymmetric reactions have dramatically increased the power and scope of organic synthesis. Indeed, the discovery that certain chiral transition metal catalysts can dictate the stereo-... 

The interest in asymmetric synthesis that began at the end of the 1970s did not ignore the dihydroxylation reaction. The stoichiometric osmylation had always been more reliable than the catalytic version, and it was clear that this should be the appropriate starting point. Criegee had shown that amines, pyridine in particular, accelerated the rate of the stoichiometric dihydroxylation, so it was understandable that the first attempt at nonenzymatic asymmetric dihydroxylation was to utilize a chiral, enantiomerically pure pyridine and determine if this induced asymmetry in the diol. This principle was verified by Sharpless (Scheme 7).20 The pyridine 25, derived from menthol, induced ee s of 3-18% in the dihydroxylation of /rcms-stilbene (23). Nonetheless, the ee s were too low and clearly had to be improved. 

A similar but asymmetric variant of the reaction, involving the radical addition of alkyl iodides and trialkylboranes to chiral azirine esters derived from 8-phenyl-menthol and camphorsultam, in the presence of a Cu(i) catalyst, has subsequently been reported [64]. The diastereoselectivity of the addition is variable (0-92% de)... 

In y-alkoxyfuranones the acetal functionality is ideally suited for the introduction of a chiral auxiliary simultaneously high 71-face selectivity may be obtained due to the relatively rigid structure that is present. With ( + )- or (—(-menthol as auxiliaries it is possible to obtain both (5S)- or (5/ )-y-menthyloxy-2(5//)-furanones in an enantiomerically pure form293. When the auxiliary acts as a bulky substituent, as in the case with the 1-menthyloxy group, the addition of enolates occurs trans to the y-alkoxy substituent. The chiral auxiliary is readily removed by hydrolysis and various optically active lactones, protected amino acids and hydroxy acids are accessible in this way294-29s-400. 

Chiral alcohols have also been used in an asymmetric synthesis of sulphoxides based on halogenation of sulphides. Johnson and coworkers have found319 that the reaction of benzyl p-tolyl sulphide with JV-chlorobenzotriazole (NCBT) followed by addition of (—) menthol and silver tetrafluoroborate afforded diastereoisomeric menthoxysulphonium salts 267 which, upon recrystallization and hydrolysis, gave benzyl p-tolyl sulphoxide with 87% optical purity (equation 145). More recently, Oae and coworkers reported320 that optically active diaryl sulphoxides (e.e. up to 20%) were formed either by hydrolysis or thermolysis of the corresponding diaryl menthoxysulphonium salts prepared in situ from diaryl sulphides using ( —) menthol and t-butyl hypochlorite. 

The Diels-Alder reaction of simple alkoxy alkenylcarbene complexes leads to mixtures of endo and exo cycloadducts, with the endo isomer generally being the major one [96,97]. Asymmetric examples of endo Diels-Alder reactions have also been reported by the use of chiral auxiliaries both on the carbene complex and the diene. Thus, the reaction of cyclopentadiene with chiral alkenylcarbene complexes derived from (-)-menthol proceeds to afford a 4 1... 

A chiral version of this [4+3] heterocyclisation was achieved using chiral, non-racemic carbene complexes derived from menthol and oximes as depicted... 

Das aus (-)-Menthol hergestellte chirale Hydrid liefert in erster Linie mit zweizahnigen Substraten [fi-Amino- ketone, En-(2)-in-(4)-ole (s.S. 74)] gute optische Ausbeuten1. Als chirale vie. Diole werden Zucker-2,1 und Terpen-Derivate wie cis- und rrans-Pinandiol-(2,3)4 verwendet. Von den Zucker-Derivaten hat sich der Kom-plex mit 3-0-Benzyl-l,2-0-cyclohexyliden-a-D-glucofuranose am besten bewahrt2,5 (Vorschrift S. 74). 

Differences in chirality of substrate, and nature of solvent, have no effect on the competitive nature of the displacement of 0-alkyl and S-methyl groups in the reactions between (+)-pinacolyl alkoxide and 0-ethyl (and methyl) S-methyl methylphosphonothioates (Scheme 23). For the (R)-( + ) esters, e.g. (210), the displacements are highly stereoselective and occur with configurational inversion,but the enantiomeric esters do not display such stereoselectivity. (-)-Menthol might be considered a mirror image of (S)-pinacol, and similar reactions with the sodium salt of (-)-menthol occur highly stereoselectively... 

Takasago A catalytic process for the enantioselective isomerization of allylic amines. The catalyst is a chiral rhodium complex. Used in the manufacture of (-)menthol. Named after Takasago International Corporation, the Japanese company which commercialized the process in 1983. 

The synthesis of a variety of chiral aliphatic aldehydes of high optical purity through the enantioselective isomerization of allylamines found many applications in organic synthesis. The enantioselective isomerization of diethylgeranylamine, which was prepared from myrcene, furnished (R, )-diethylenamine in >98% yield with >98% ee. This enamine is converted to (—(-menthol stereospecifically in high chemical yield (yield of each step >92%, Scheme 4).9 11... 

Besides the phosphite ligands based on BINOL, phosphite ligands based on bisphenol are also used in rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation. These ligands are shown in Scheme 28.7 and consist of a bisphenol with different substituents on the 3,3, 5,5, and 6,6 -positions. The ligands without substituents on the 6,6 -positions are only fluxionally chiral. The use of readily available chiral alcohols (21 aa-21 aj) such as menthol in combination with bisphenol was thought to induce one of the bisphenol conformations in preponderant amounts [49]. The... 

For acrylates, or type I reagents, applied in asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions, several chiral auxiliaries such as menthol derivatives, camphor derivatives,16,3 and oxazolidinones4 are available. Carbohydrate compounds have also been reported as chiral auxiliaries in a recent publication, although the stereoselectivity was not good.5 Here are examples in which asymmetric Diels-... 

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