Natural products catalytic enantioselective synthesis

Since oxazolidines and oxazolidinones are fiindamental structural classes in organic chemistry (chiral auxiliaries) and in medicinal chemistry (e.g., Linezolid) and since they mask P-hydroxy-a-amino acids, which are widespread in various biologically active compounds and in natural products, the enantioselective synthesis of oxazolidinones is a challenging topic. Indeed, a new method for the direct synthesis of chiral 4-carboxyl oxazolidinones 168 by the catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction of isocyanato-malonate diesters 166 with aldehydes 167 in the presence of a thiourea catalyst (TUC) was developed. Since the resulting chiral 4-carboxy oxazolidinones are the equivalent of P-hydroxy-a-amino acids, this procedure... 

Development of amino thiourea catalysts as an artificial enzymes and their application to catalytic enantioselective synthesis of natural products and medical supplies 06Y1139. 

Like many other antibodies, the activity of antibody 14D9 is sufficient for preparative application, yet it remains modest when compared to that of enzymes. The protein is relatively difficult to produce, although a recombinant format as a fusion vdth the NusA protein was found to provide the antibody in soluble form with good activity [20]. It should be mentioned that aldolase catalytic antibodies operating by an enamine mechanism, obtained by the principle of reactive immunization mentioned above [15], represent another example of enantioselective antibodies, which have proven to be preparatively useful in organic synthesis [21]. One such aldolase antibody, antibody 38C2, is commercially available and provides a useful alternative to natural aldolases to prepare a variety of enantiomerically pure aldol products, which are otherwise difficult to prepare, allovdng applications in natural product synthesis [22]. 

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. ... 

Hoveyda in his essay on asymmetric catalysis in target-oriented synthesis (p 145). The concept of catalysis-based total synthesis, in which a series of catalytic enantioselective reactions are employed in combination with other catalytic reactions, is emerging as the desirable way to make complex natural products and medidnally-important target compounds. 

This article provides a brief overview of several recent total syntheses of natural and unnatural products that have benefited from the use of catalytic asymmetric processes. The article is divided by the type of bond formation that the catalytic enan-tioselective reaction accomplishes (e.g C-C or C-0 bond formation). Emphasis is made on instances where a catalytic asymmetric reaction is utilized at a critical step (or steps) within a total synthesis however, cases where catalytic enantioselective transformations are used to prepare the requisite chiral non-racemic starting materials are also discussed. At the close of the article, two recent total syntheses are examined, where asymmetric catalytic reactions along with a number of other catalyzed processes are the significant driving force behind the successful completion of these efforts (Catalysis-Based Total Syntheses). 

The potential application of this catalytic system was illustrated by Takemoto in the application to a tandem conjugate addition towards the asymmetric synthesis of (-)-epibatidine, a biologically active natural product [100, 101], The authors designed an enantioselective double Michael addition of an unsaturated functionalized P-ketoester to a p-aryl nitro-olefm. The asymmetric synthesis of the 4-nitro-cyclohexanones was achieved in both high diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity, with the natural product precursor synthesized in 90% yield and 87.5 12.5 er (Scheme 49). The target (-)-epibatidine was subsequently achieved in six steps. 

Recently, the first examples of catalytic enantioselective preparations of chiral a-substituted allylic boronates have appeared. Cyclic dihydropyranylboronate 76 (Fig. 6) is prepared in very high enantiomeric purity by an inverse electron-demand hetero-Diels-Alder reaction between 3-boronoacrolein pinacolate (87) and ethyl vinyl ether catalyzed by chiral Cr(lll) complex 88 (Eq. 64). The resulting boronate 76 adds stereoselectively to aldehydes to give 2-hydroxyalkyl dihydropyran products 90 in a one-pot process.The diastereoselectiv-ity of the addition is explained by invoking transition structure 89. Key to this process is the fact that the possible self-allylboration between 76 and 87 does not take place at room temperature. Several applications of this three-component reaction to the synthesis of complex natural products have been described (see section on Applications to the Synthesis of Natural Products ). 

Chiral (3-amino alcohols are important building blocks for the preparation of chiral auxiliaries, ligands, and natural products (for reviews on the asymmetric synthesis and use of vicinal amino alcohols, see [44-47]). Catalytic enantioselective... 

Osmium-catalysed dihydroxylation of olefins is a powerful route towards enantioselective introduction of chiral centers into organic substrates [82]. Its importance is remarkable because of its common use in organic and natural product synthesis, due to its ability to introduce two vicinal functional groups into hydrocarbons with no functional groups [83]. Prof. Sharpless received the 2001 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his development of asymmetric catalytic oxidation reactions of alkenes, including his outstanding achievements in the osmium asymmetric dihydroxylation of olefins. 

The availability of 38C2 as a broad scope, enantioselective, efficient aldolase enzyme has had a significant impact on organic synthesis. Some of the molecules we have synthesized with 38C2 include the natural products ( + ) —frontalin [( + )— 27] (List et al., 1999), some brevicomins [( —) —28 and (—) —29] (List etal., 1998a), epothilones A (30) and C (31) (Sinha et al., 1998), and the Wieland-Miescher ketone [( ) — ( + )—32] (Hoffmann et al., 1998 Zhong et al., 1997). The brevicomin examples represent the first use of a catalytic antibody to decrease the total number of synthetic steps and increase the enantioselectivity of natural product syntheses. 

With the enantioselective intramolecular benzoin reaction established as a synthetic tool, and in combination with our efforts in the synthesis of bioactive natural products bearing a quaternary a-hydroxy ketone unit (Davis and Weismiller 1990 Heller and Tamm 1981), such as the 4-chromanone derivative (S)-eucomol (Bohler and Tamm 1967 Crouch et al. 1999), a catalytic asymmetric synthesis of various 3-hydroxy-4-chromanones brought about by the chiral triazolium salts 127, 123b and 102 as pre-catalysts was investigated (Enders et al. 2006d). The sterically different pre-catalysts were chosen in order to adjust the catalyst system to the steric and electronic properties of the substrates 128. A screening of the reaction conditions indicated 10 mol% of the... 

The inter- and intramolecular Diels-Alder reactions of furans, and their applications to the synthesis of natural products as well as synthetic materials, were reviewed <1997T14179>. HfCU promoted the endo-seXccuve. inter-molecular Diels-Alder cycloadditions of furans with a,/3-unsaturated esters <2002AGE4079>. The cycloaddition between furan and methacrylate was also achieved under these conditions, providing, however the o-isomer as the major cycloadduct. A catalytic enantioselective Diels-Alder reaction between furan and acryloyl oxazolidinone to provide the < 46i-adduct in 97% ee was achieved by using the cationic bis(4-fer7-butyloxazoline)copper(ll) complex 55, as shown in Equation (41) <1997TL57>. 

Selected Applications of the Catalytic Enantioselective Allylation Reaction in Natural Product Synthesis... 

The fact that several laboratories have already applied the enantioselective catalytic allylation reaction to the synthesis of complex natural products illustrates the eagerness with which the synthetic community has welcomed this methodology. It is hoped that further efforts to find conditions that promote high enantio- and dia-stereoselectivity and low catalyst loading for a variety of aldehyde substrates will continue in this promising new direction of the allylation reaction. 

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