Methyllithium, reaction with carboxylic

The other three methods have not been studied extensively. The dimethyl-cadmium route has been used on a 17a-methyl-17 -carboxylic acid. ° The reaction of the acid amide with a Grignard reagent is described only in a Spanish patent,with a high yield claimed, and the methyllithium reaction has apparently been tried only on D-norsteroids. ... 

Two years later, the same group reported a formal synthesis of ellipticine (228) using 6-benzyl-6H-pyrido[4,3-f>]carbazole-5,ll-quinone (6-benzylellipticine quinone) (1241) as intermediate (716). The optimized conditions, reaction of 1.2 equivalents of 3-bromo-4-lithiopyridine (1238) with M-benzylindole-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride (852) at —96°C, led regioselectively to the 2-acylindole-3-carboxylic acid 1233 in 42% yield. Compound 1233 was converted to the corresponding amide 1239 by treatment with oxalyl chloride, followed by diethylamine. The ketone 1239 was reduced to the corresponding alcohol 1240 by reaction with sodium borohydride. Reaction of the alcohol 1240 with f-butyllithium led to the desired 6-benzylellipticine quinone (1241), along with a debrominated alcohol 1242, in 40% and 19% yield, respectively. 6-Benzylellipticine quinone (1241) was transformed to 6-benzylellipticine (1243) in 38% yield by treatment with methyllithium, then hydroiodic acid, followed... 

Methyl ketones are often directly prepared from carboxylic acids by reaction with methyllithium. Other simple alkyl ketones may also be prepared in the same fashion, making this a method that should be considered whenever these substrates are required. An important demonstration of this protocol was reported by Masamune and coworkers in their synthesis of chiral propionate surrogates (Scheme 13). The ethyl and cyclopropyl ketones are important starting materials for macrolide total synthesis and have been prepared on a large scale. The overall yield for the ethyl ketone is 65% using 3.5 equiv. of ethyllithium without protection of the hydroxy group. 

Reaction with p,7-unsaturated carboxylic acids. A few years ago Dalton and Chan reported that the, 7-unsaturated carboxylic acid (1) reacts with methyllithium (2 eq.) in hexane to give the expected methyl ketone (2) and that a product (3) of rearrangement is obtained if the reaction is conducted in ether. This reaction is not connected with the cyclic structure of (1), since a... 

Scheme 9.162. A pathway for the substitution of an alkyl group for an -OH group of a carboxylic acid (benzenecarboxylic acid [benzoic acid]). The lithium salt of the carboxylic acid is thoroughly dried prior to attempted reaction with methyllithium.

Decarboxylation of carboxylic acids.1 Reaction of methyllithium with non-enolizable a-phenyl- or a-phenythio carboxylic acids such as 1 in HMPT results in a Haller-Bauer type fragmentation with loss of C02. The intermediate carbanion can be trapped by various electrophiles. 

Asymmetric synthesis of ketones and acids A new synthesis of chiral ketones and acids starts with the reaction of an anhydride or an acid chloride with either I-or li-ephedrin to form a chiral N,N-disubstituted amide (1) in almost quantitative yield. The amide (1) is then alkylated via the anion to give 2, which contains three asymmetric centers. Acid hydrolysis of 2 gives a carboxylic acid (3) with an optical yield of 75% (two examples). Cleavage of 2 with methyllithium gives a methyl ketone (4), in optical yields of 45-75%. 

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