Natural Product Synthesis via Titanium Enolate Aldol Reactions

Stereoselective synthesis of anti aldols using chiral titanium Lew/is acids. 

Natural Product Synthesis via Titanium Enolate Aldol Reactions 

Numerous applications of titanium enolate aldol reactions have been reported for the synthesis of natural products and bioactive compounds of pharmaceutical interest. These syntheses were performed by utilizing the titanium enolate methods described above as key steps. There are many transformations that simply cannot be achieved by use of conventional aldol chemistry. Furthermore, the use of inexpensive titanium reagents, operational simplicity, and functional group tolerance make this chemistry very attractive in synthesis. The following applications in synthesis further exemplify the increasing importance of titanium aldol chemistry. 

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Natural Product Synthesis via Titanium Enolate Aldol Reactions 107 O OH... 

Much tvork in the field of aldol reactions of ketones tvas performed by Evans to enable the synthesis of polypropionate natural products. They demonstrated that j5-ketoimides like 159 vere selectively and completely enolized at the C4 position rather than the potentially labile methyl-bearing C2 position, most probably because steric factors prohibited alignment of the carbonyl groups necessary to activate the C2 proton. As sho vn in Table 2.29, it vas demonstrated that these compounds vould react vith aldehydes to provide syn-syn product 161, via titanium enolates, vith good yield and excellent selectivity, and the corresponding syn-anti product 162 could be favored by use of a tin enolate reaction [58]. They invoked the chelated transition state assembly 160 to explain the product stereochemistry observed, in vhich the C2-methyl group directs diastereofacial selectivity. Interestingly, reduction vith Zn(BH4)2 provided the syn diol diastereoselec-tively. 

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