Natural product synthesis reduction

Chemoselective reduction of a,(3-epoxy carbonyl compounds to aldols and their analogs by organoseleniums and its application to natural product synthesis 98YGK736. 

Nitroalkenes prepared from aromatic aldehydes are especially useful for natural product synthesis. For example, the products are directly converted into ketones via the Nef reaction (Section 6.1) or indoles (Section 10.2) via the reduction to phenylethylamines (Section 6.3.2). The application of these transformations are discussed later here, some examples are presented to emphasize their utility. Schemes 3.3 and 3.4 present a synthesis of 5,6-dihydroxyindole66 and asperidophytine indole alkaloid,67 respectively. 

Scheme 2.46 Synthesis of natural products by reduction of propargylic electrophiles with aluminum hydrides. DIBAH = diisobutylaluminum hydride ...

A relevant reductive process, which has found wide application in organic synthesis, is the deoxygenation of alcohols introduced in 1975 by Barton and McCombie [58]. Reaction (4.28) shows that the thiocarbonyl derivatives, easily obtained from the corresponding alcohol, can be reduced in the presence of BusSnH under free radical conditions. The reactivity of xanthates and thiocarbonyl imidazolides [58] was successfully extended to 0-arylthiocarbonates [59] and (9-thioxocarbamates [60]. Several reviews have appeared on this subject, thus providing an exhaustive view of this methodology and its application in natural product synthesis [61-64]. 

Other applications of the BINAL-H reduction to natural product synthesis M. Ishiguro, N. Koizumi, M. Yasuda, and N. Ikekawa, J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 115 (1981) P- Baeckstrom, F. Bjorkling, H.-E. Hdgberg, and T. Norm, Acta Chem. Scand. B, 37, 1 (1983). 

The significance of chiral unnatural amino acids to drug and natural product synthesis is shown in the example of the antihypertensive dmg omapatrilat (Vanlev ), which is composed of no less than three amino acid derived intermediates [144-147]. Diverse biocatalytical approaches to L-6-oxonorleucine were made (Fig. 21). Two different enzymes were applied in reductive amination reactions to produce derivatives of the desired intermediate. 

The introduction of substituents at the 3-position of pyrrole has been actively pursued in recent years due to the importance of this class of compound in natural product synthesis. In contrast to the significant number of preparations of polysubstituted 3-arylpyrroles, there have been relatively few syntheses of simple 3-arylpyrroles. A literature survey on the preparation of 3-arylpyrroles showed that the methods reported include the reductive cycliza-tion of 2-arylsuccinonitriles, the base-induced ring-closure of arylvinamidinium salts, and... 

A rational extension of ortho-tolyl benzamide metalation [68], part of the broadly encompassing lateral metalation protocol [69] that can be DoM-connected, is the DreM equivalent, 154 —> 155 (Scheme 41), which provides a general regioselective route to 9-phenanthrols (156, 157, 158) [70] and may be extended to diaryl nitriles, hydroxylamine ethers, and hy-drazones 160, which provide the corresponding 9-amino derivatives 161 of similar generality 162-165 (Scheme 42), as may also be applied in natural product synthesis [71]. Further opportunities for DoM-cross-coupling and reduction/oxidation chemistry (159) have also been demonstrated [70a]. 

Ruthenium is not an effective catalyst in many catalytic reactions however, it is becoming one of the most novel and promising metals with respect to organic synthesis. The recent discovery of C-H bond activation reactions [38] and alkene metathesis reactions [54] catalyzed by ruthenium complexes has had a significant impact on organic chemistry as well as other chemically related fields, such as natural product synthesis, polymer science, and material sciences. Similarly, carbonylation reactions catalyzed by ruthenium complexes have also been extensively developed. Compared with other transition-metal-catalyzed carbonylation reactions, ruthenium complexes are known to catalyze a few carbonylation reactions, such as hydroformylation or the reductive carbonylation of nitro compounds. In the last 10 years, a number of new carbonylation reactions have been discovered, as described in this chapter. We ex-... 

Treatment of a, -unsaturated carbonyl compounds 18 with nucleophilic selenium species affords -seleno carbonyl compounds 19 in good yields via Michael addition (Scheme 27) [46]. This reaction has been applied to protect a, -unsa-turated lactones [47], in natural product synthesis [48], and in asymmetric Michael additions in the presence of an alkaloid [49]. Michael addition also proceeds with selenolates that are prepared from diphenyl diselenide by cathodic reduction [22], reduction with the Sm-Me3SiCl-H20 system [19], and reduction with tributyl phosphine [25]. 

Chiral Ligand of LiAlH4 for the Enantioselective Reduction of a,p-Unsaturated Ketones. Enantioselective reductions of a,p-unsaturated ketones afford optically active ally lie alcohols which are useful intermediates in natural product synthesis. Enantioselective reduction of a,p-unsaturated ketones with LiAlH4 modified with chiral amino alcohol (1) affords optically active (S)-allylic alcohols with high ee s. When 2-cyclohexen-l-one is employed, (5)-2-cyclohexen-l-ol with 100% ee is obtained in 95% yield (eq 2). This is comparable with the results obtained using LiAlH4-chiral binaphthol and chiral 1,3,2-oxazaborolidine. ... 

Reductions with LAH are frequently applied to natural product synthesis to yield the more-substituted alcohols. Some recent examples are given in equations (12) and (13). In the nucleoside synthesis, the adenosine group can tolerate the reduction conditions. 

Numerous methods for the reduction of ketones and aldehydes to the corresponding secondary and primary alcohols, such as the use of several complex metal hydrides, have found wide application in organic synthesis. Lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH4) and sodium borohydride (NaBH4) are the most popular of these achiral reagents. However, since a natural product synthesis has to fulfill demands in terms of both efficiency and stereoselectivity, these methods can seldom be used with prochiral substrates. 

Reductive cyclizations have recently been reviewed [206], and applications to natural product synthesis can be found in Chapter 19. In this section only intramolecular reactions involving carbon-carbon multiple bonds (i.e., similar to the intermolecular reactions discussed earlier) will be treated. 

Alkynic ketones have been used extensively in natural product synthesis, due in large part to the contributions of Midland and coworkers and the development of generd methods for enantioselective reduction of this moiety to afford optically active propargyl alcohols using chiral trialkylboranes. Furthermore, the derived alkynic alcohol is a versatile system which can be manipulated directly into cis-or rra 5-allylic alcohols and as a precursor for vinylorganometallic species. This section will briefly cover progress made in the direct acylation of alkynic organolithiums with the acylation protocol d veloped by Weinreb (see also Section 1.13.2.7). 

These four examples of the successful application of the Julia coupling in natural product synthesis indicate the sensitivity of various substrates to the anionic conditions. The solutions, interchanging the aldehyde and sulfone portions, modification of the substrate or altering the reductive elimination conditions, are all techniques that can enable the successful use of the Julia coupling for ( )-alkene synthesis. 

Birch reduction of aromatic ethers is well known to afford alicyclic compounds such as cyclohexadienes and cyclohexenones, from which a number of natural products have been synthesized. Oxidation of phenols also affords alicyclic cyclohexadienones and masked quinones in addition to C—C and/or C—O coupled products. All of them are regarded as promising synthetic intermediates for a variety of bioactive compounds including natural products. However, in contrast to Birch reduction, systematic reviews on phenolic oxidation have not hitherto appeared from the viewpoint of synthetic organic chemistry, particularly natural products synthesis. In the case of phenolic oxidation, difficulties involving radical polymerization should be overcome. This chapter demonstrates that phenolic oxidation is satisfactorily used as a key step for the synthesis of bioactive compounds and their building blocks. 

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