Natural products Cope rearrangement

In this beautiful synthesis of periplanone B, Still demonstrated a classical aspect and use of total synthesis - the unambiguous establishment of the structure of a natural product. More impressively, he demonstrated the usefulness of the anionic oxy-Cope rearrangement in the construction of ten-membered rings and the feasibility of exploiting conformational preferences of these medium-sized rings to direct the stereochemical course of chemical reactions on such templates. 

As we have indicated with our arrows, the mechanism of the uncatalyzed Cope rearrangement is a simple six-centered pericyclic process. Since the mechanism is so simple, it has been possible to study some rather subtle points, among them the question of whether the six-membered transition state is in the boat or the chair form. ° For the case of 3,4-dimethyl-l,5-hexadiene it was demonstrated conclusively that the transition state is in the chair form. This was shown by the stereospecific nature of the reaction The meso isomer gave the cis-trans product, while the ( ) compound gave the trans-trans diene. If the transition state is in the chair form (e.g., taking the meso isomer), one methyl must be axial and the other equatorial and the product must be the cis-trans alkene ... 

Entry 2 illustrates the reversibility of the Cope rearrangement. In this case, the equilibrium is closely balanced with the reactant benefiting from a more-substituted double bond, whereas the product is stabilized by conjugation. The reaction in Entry 3 involves a cz s-divinylcyclopropane and proceeds at much lower temperature that the previous examples. The reaction was used in the preparation of an intermediate for the synthesis of pseudoguiane-type natural products. 

Demethoxycarbonyldihydrogambirtannine (71) was synthesized several times (189-191) before its isolation as a natural product from Ochrosia lifuana Guill. as well as Ochrosia miana H.Bn. ex Guill. (65). In the last decade, ( )-71 was elegantly synthesized by Wilcock and Winterfeldt (792) from an appropriately substituted cyclohexadienyltetrahydronorharmane derivative 349 via the Cope rearrangement, cyclization, reduction, and acid-treatment sequence. 

An irreversible consecutive reaction as a driving force to shift an unfavorable Cope rearrangement equilibria in the needed direction can be illustrated by the Cope-Claisen tandem process used for the synthesis of chiral natural compounds243. It was found that thermolysis of fraws-isomeric allyl ethers 484 or 485 at 255 °C leads to an equilibrium mixture of the two isomers in a 55 45 ratio without conversion into any other products (equation 184). Under the same conditions the isomer 487 rearranges to give the Cope-Claisen aldehyde 491 (equation 185). Presumably, the interconversion 484 485 proceeds via intermediate 486 whose structure is not favorable for Claisen rearrangement. In contrast, one of the two cyclodiene intermediates of process 487 488 (viz. 490 rather than 489) has a conformation appropriate for irreversible Claisen rearrangement243. 

It should be noted that the stereochemical aspects of the Cope rearrangement are widely used for synthesis of various natural products, e.g. of the elemene-type derivatives 493-496 starting from germacrene-type sesquiterpenes 492 having cyclodeca-1,5-diene structure with stable conformations (equation 186)244. 

In particular the synthetic approach to dihydrofurans (first equation in Figure 4.23) represents a useful alternative to other syntheses of these valuable intermediates, and has been used for the preparation of substituted pyrroles [1417], aflatoxin derivatives [1418], and other natural products [1419]. The reaction of vinylcarbene complexes with dienes can lead to the formation of cycloheptadienes by a formal [3 + 4] cycloaddition [1367] (Entries 9-12, Table 4.25). High asymmetric induction (up to 98% ee [1420]) can be attained using enantiomerically pure rhodium(II) carboxylates as catalysts. This observation suggests the reaction to proceed via divinylcyclopropanes, which undergo (concerted) Cope rearrangement to yield cycloheptadienes. 

The Cope rearrangement is of great importance as a synthetic method e.g. for the construction of seven- and eight-membered carbocycles from 1,2-divinylcyclopropanes and 1,2-divinylcyclobutanes respectively (e.g. 11 12), and has found wide application in the synthesis of natural products. The second step of the para-Claisen rearrangement is also a Cope rearrangement reaction. 

The Claisen rearrangement has been instrumental in the synthesis of a number of natural products.279-289 Many useful derivatives have been prepared using the Claisen-type rearrangement including enol ethers,290 amides,291-293 esters and orthoesters,294-296 acids,297-298 oxazolines,299 ketene acetals,300-301 and thioesters.302 Many of these variants use a cyclic primer to control relative and absolute stereochemistry. The Claisen and oxy Cope provide the best candidates for scale up as a result of the irreversible nature of these reactions. 

The implication of the multiple possible reaction pathways shown in Scheme 4.6 is that any computational approach must allow for the possible contribution of at least these three valence bond structures. " The simplest approach to the nature of the wavefunction for the Cope rearrangement is to just account for the correlation of the active orbitals of the reactants with those of the products. The o-bond between C3 and C4 of the reactant correlates to a(Ci-C ) in the product. Assuming that 1,5-hexadiene has C2 symmetry, both of these orbitals have a synunetry. The in-phase mixing of the two jc-bonds of the reactant (it(Cx-C2)-l-Jc(C5-Cg)) has b synunetry and correlates with (jc(C2-C3)-l-Jt(C4-C5)) of the product. The out-of-phase combination of the reactant Jc-bonds (it(Ci-C2) - it(C5-Cg)) has a synunetry and correlates with (jc(C2-C3) - Jc(C4-C5)) of the product. If the reaction proceeds through a C211 geometry, orbital symmetry demands that these active orbitals of must become Ug aJbJ. So, we may take as the aromatic ... 

Racemization of the Mannich ba.se may be caused by intrinsic instability " of the optically active final product, or it may occur during the synthesis or the optical resolution. The former case is fiequently observed in the preparation of cyclic derivatives of natural products and concerns Mannich reactions of different types, including the tandem aza-Cope-Mannich rearrangement, which affords more or less extensively ra-cemized products starting from optically active materials. -" -" - This finding is explained on the basis of the equilibrium involved in the 3,3-reanangement leading to ketones 201 (Fig. 72), key intermediates for the synthesis of alkaloids. 

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