Natural products asymmetric

Monoterpenes and iridoids are very important natural products, and the biosynthetic pathways toward these compounds are nowadays well understood. We choose this class of secondary metabolites to highlight the potential of asymmetric organocatalysis for the total synthesis of complex natural products. Asymmetric organocatalysis has been one of the most exciting fields in organic chemistry over the last decades, and we hope that we have been able to illustrate how diverse and powerful this methodology can be with respect to different activation modes that are possible and different substance classes that can be easily accessed thereby. 

Benzylamine Purine. The purine 6-benzylaminopurine [1214-39-7] (13) is an analogue of the natural product adenine, a component of both deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid. It is not employed alone, but rather in combination with the natural products GA and GA to improve the size, weight, and thereby, yield per hm of Red DeHcious apples (10,24,25). Compounds with cytokinin activity were reported in 1913 (26) and asymmetric growth in apples was pubHshed in 1968 (27). 

Many classes of natural product possess heterocyclic components (e.g. alkaloids, carbohydrates). However, their structures are often complex, and although structure-based names derived by using the principles outlined in the foregoing sections can be devised, such names tend to be impossibly cumbersome. Furthermore, the properties of complex natural product structures are often closely bound up with their stereochemistry, and for a molecule containing a number of asymmetric elements the specification of a particular stereoisomer by using the fundamental descriptors (R/S, EjZ) is a job few chemists relish. 

Chiral oxazoline-based synthetic methods have been employed in the asymmetric synthesis of a large number of natural products. A few representative examples of these applications are shown below. 

The sesquiterpenoid hydrocarbons (5)-a-curcumene (59) and (5)-xanthorrhizol (60) were prepared by asymmetric conjugate addition of the appropriate aryllithium reagent to unsaturated oxazoline 56 to afford alcohols 57 (66% yield, 96% ee) and 58 (57% yield, 96% ee) upon hydrolysis and reduction. The chiral alcohols were subsequently converted to the desired natural products. ... 

The asymmetric addition of organolithium reagents to arylox azolines has been used to construct highly complex polycyclic terpene structures found in natural products. For example, the asymmetric addition of vinyllithium to chiral naphthyloxazoline 3 followed by treatment of the resulting anionic intermediate with iodoethyl dioxolane 61... 

The axially chiral natural product mastigophorene A (70) was synthesized via a copper-catalyzed asymmetric homocoupling of bromooxazoline 68. Treatment of 68 with activated copper in DMF afforded 69 in 85% yield as a 3 1 mixture of atropisomers. The major atropisomer was converted into mastigophorene A (70) the minor regioisomer was transformed into the atropisomeric natural product mastigophorene... 

Asymmetric Birch reduction and reduction-alkylation in synthesis of natural products 99CC1263. 

For excellent discussions of the use of optically active starting materials in synthesis, see (a) Hanes-sian, S. The Total Synthesis of Natural Products. The Chiron Approach, Pergamon Press New York, 1983 (b) Scott, J.W. In Asymmetric Synthesis, Morrison, J.D. Scott, J. W., Eds., Academic Press San Diego, 1984, Vol. 4, p. 1. 

This highly convergent synthesis amply demonstrates the utility of Evans s asymmetric aldol and alkylation methodology for the synthesis of polypropionate-derived natural products. By virtue of the molecular complexity and pronounced lability of cytovaricin, this synthesis ranks among the most outstanding synthetic achievements in the macrolide field. 

A reiterative application of a two-carbon elongation reaction of a chiral carbonyl compound (Homer-Emmonds reaction), reduction (DIBAL) of the obtained trans unsaturated ester, asymmetric epoxidation (SAE or MCPBA) of the resulting allylic alcohol, and then C-2 regioselective addition of a cuprate (Me2CuLi) to the corresponding chiral epoxy alcohol has been utilized for the construction of the polypropionate-derived chain ]R-CH(Me)CH(OH)CH(Me)-R ], present as a partial structure in important natural products such as polyether, ansamycin, or macro-lide antibiotics [52]. A seminal application of this procedure is offered by Kishi s synthesis of the C19-C26 polyketide-type aliphatic segment of rifamycin S, starting from aldehyde 105 (Scheme 8.29) [53]. 

When asymmetric epoxidation of a diene is not feasible, an indirect route based on asymmetric dihydroxylation can be employed. The alkene is converted into the corresponding syn-diol with high enantioselectivity, and the diol is subsequently transformed into the corresponding trans-epoxide in a high-yielding one-pot procedure (Scheme 9.5) [20]. No cpirricrizalion occurs, and the procedure has successfully been applied to natural product syntheses when direct epoxidation strategies have failed [21]. Alternative methods for conversion of vicinal diols into epoxides have also been reported [22, 23]. 

This type of asymmetric conjugate addition of allylic sulfinyl carbanions to cyclopen-tenones has been applied successfully to total synthesis of some natural products. For example, enantiomerically pure (+ )-hirsutene (29) is prepared (via 28) using as a key step conjugate addition of an allylic sulfinyl carbanion to 2-methyl-2-cyclopentenone (equation 28)65, and (+ )-pentalene (31) is prepared using as a key step kinetically controlled conjugate addition of racemic crotyl sulfinyl carbanion to enantiomerically pure cyclopentenone 30 (equation 29) this kinetic resolution of the crotyl sulfoxide is followed by several chemical transformations leading to (+ )-pentalene (31)68. 

Successful applications of these stereocontrolled conjugate additions have led to asymmetric syntheses of several natural products such as (+ )-cuparenone (39) which involves formation of a quaternary carbon center81, (- )-/ -vetivone (40)8° and steroidal equilenin 4182 the wavy lines in these structures indicate that C—C bond formed stereoselectively under the influence of a temporarily-attached stereogenic sulfoxide auxiliary group. 

Abstract Since its discovery the chromium-mediated benzannulation reaction has been developed into a unique and useful tool in organic synthesis. In this review, topical aspects of this reaction concerning its mechanism and the chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity are summerised and discussed in detail. Special attention is paid to the asymmetric benzannulation reaction and, finally, the importance of this reaction as a key step in the total synthesis of natural products is outlined. 

An area in which catalytic olefin metathesis could have a significant impact on future natural product-directed work would be the desymmetrization of achiral molecules through asymmetric RCM (ARCM) or asymmetric ROM... 

Dell C. P. Cycloaddition in Synthesis Contemporary Organic Synthesis 1997 4 87 Keywords natural products, metal catalyzed, asymmetric reactions, Ionic reactions, transannular reactions, tethered reactions, tandem reactions, benzo-qulnones, quinodimethanes, hefero-Dlels-Alder reactions... 

Helmchen G., Goeke A., Kreisz S., Krotz A Lauer H., Linz G. Cyclopentanoid Natural Products Via Asymmetric Diels-Alder Reactions Stud. Nat. Prod. Chem. 1991 8 139-158... 

Both chiral lactones and ketones have been utilized in asymmetric synthesis of bioactive compounds like lipoic acid [175[ and natural products like various insect pheromones [176[. 

Allylic alcohols can be converted to epoxy-alcohols with tert-butylhydroperoxide on molecular sieves, or with peroxy acids. Epoxidation of allylic alcohols can also be done with high enantioselectivity. In the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation,allylic alcohols are converted to optically active epoxides in better than 90% ee, by treatment with r-BuOOH, titanium tetraisopropoxide and optically active diethyl tartrate. The Ti(OCHMe2)4 and diethyl tartrate can be present in catalytic amounts (15-lOmol %) if molecular sieves are present. Polymer-supported catalysts have also been reported. Since both (-t-) and ( —) diethyl tartrate are readily available, and the reaction is stereospecific, either enantiomer of the product can be prepared. The method has been successful for a wide range of primary allylic alcohols, where the double bond is mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrasubstituted. This procedure, in which an optically active catalyst is used to induce asymmetry, has proved to be one of the most important methods of asymmetric synthesis, and has been used to prepare a large number of optically active natural products and other compounds. The mechanism of the Sharpless epoxidation is believed to involve attack on the substrate by a compound formed from the titanium alkoxide and the diethyl tartrate to produce a complex that also contains the substrate and the r-BuOOH. ... 

A similar method was later used by the group of Tomioka [10] for the asymmetric addition of thiazolylhthium 44 to prochiral aldimines (Scheme 10) for the preparation of (S)-Boc-Doe 46, a component of antileukemic marine natural product dolastatin 10. In this case, sparteine 1 was... 

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