Natural product synthesis asymmetric reactions

Since Huisgen s definition of the general concepts of 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, this class of reaction has been used extensively in organic synthesis. Nitro compounds can participate in 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition as sources of 1,3-dipoles such as nitronates or nitroxides. Because the reaction of nitrones can be compared with that of nitronates, recent development of nitrones in organic synthesis is briefly summarized. 1,3-Dipolar cycloadditions to a double bond or a triple bond lead to five-membered heterocyclic compounds (Scheme 8.12). There are many excellent reviews on 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, in particular, the monograph by Torssell covers this topic comprehensively. This chapter describes only recent progress in this field. Many papers have appeared after the comprehensive monograph by Torssell. Here, the natural product synthesis and asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition are emphasized.630 Synthesis of pyrrolidine and -izidine alkaloids based on cycloaddition reactions are also discussed in this chapter. 

Several research groups studied the asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction of maleimides, and applied those methods to natural product synthesis. 

The Wittig and related reactions have been reviewed in the context of natural product synthesis 120 mechanistic studies of the Wittig reaction have also been reviewed with particular reference to asymmetric induction.121... 

Although this reaction has been known since 1921 and is widely applied in natural product synthesis and drug discovery, catalytic asymmetric variants are rare. 

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. 

Natural product synthesis and medicinal chemistry exist in a symbiotic relationship with the development of synthesis methodology. Noy-ori s asymmetric hydrogenations, Sharpless olefin oxidations, Grubbs olefin metathesis, Buchwald-Hartwig couplings and Jacobsen s hydrolytic kinetic resolution are illustrious examples with many practical applications. The key to the success of the above-mentioned reactions is that they have provided reliable shortcuts to more traditional synthetic... 

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]. 

That this asymmetric reaction has vast potential in natural product synthesis is illustrated by the short synthesis of the side-chain alcohol present in the biologically important vitamins E and K (Sch. 55). 

The directed aldol reaction in the presence of TiC found many applications in natural product synthesis. Equation (7) shows an example of the aldol reaction utilized in the synthesis of tautomycin [46], in which many sensitive functional groups survived the reaction conditions. The production of the depicted single isomer after the titanium-mediated aldol reaction could be rationalized in terms of the chelation-controlled (anft-Felkin) reaction path [37]. A stereochemical model has been presented for merged 1,2- and 1,3-asymmetric induction in diastereoselective Mukaiyama aldol reaction and related processes [47]. 

In general, as the aldehyde a-substituents become more sterically demanding, it becomes more difficult to obtain useful levels of diastereoselection for the product expected from reagent control in mismatched double asymmetric reactions between chiral aldehydes and chiral allyl- and crotylboronates [203]. For this reason, in natural product synthesis, mismatched double asymmetric reactions should be designed to occur early rather than late in a synthetic sequence. 

A final example of the use of tartrate-derived crotylboronates in natural product synthesis is illustrated in the formal total synthesis of ikarugamicin (Scheme II-11) [179]. Here, Roush and Wada used the asymmetric crotylboration of meso-(t/" -2,4-hexadien-1,6-dial)iron tricarbonyl 266 with (S,S)-(E)-219 to set three stereocenters in their synthesis of the a,s-indacene unit of ikarugamycin. This key reaction provided 267 in 90% yield and >98% ee. Homoallylic alcohol 267 was converted to the allylic acetate 268, which underwent stereoselective ethylation with EtsAl with retention of stereochemistry. The resulting adduct 269 was subsequently elaborated to as -indacene unit 271 through a 15-step synthetic sequence, including the intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction of 270. 

The usefulness of aminosiloxy diene Diels-Alder chemistry to the preparation of different substituted cyclohexenones is demonstrated in Table 11.3 The functionality at the 4 and 5-positions of the cyclohexenones can be easily controlled by the substitution pattern in the dienophile. The differing endo-exo selectivity found in the initial cycloadducts does not impact the usefulness of this route to cyclohexenones, since the amino group is eliminated in the last step. Chiral versions of aminosiloxy dienes provide the opportunity for asymmetric synthesis. Indeed, the diphenylpyrrolidine-substituted diene allows the synthesis of a variety of cyclohexenones, with good to excellent ee s 2b The usefulness of aminosiloxy diene Diels-Alder reactions to natural product synthesis is exemplified through the stereocontrolled synthesis of the pentacyclic indole alkaloid tabersonine 2c... 

In contrast, tautens and coworkers recently focused on asymmetric hydroalumination using Ni-BINAP as catalyst [177]. The reaction involves ring-opening desymmetrization of several 1,4-dihydrofuran derivatives that produce important chiral building blocks for natural product synthesis high ee is usually obtained (Scheme 6.138) [178]. 

Of these three highly diastereoselective methods for accomplishing asymmetric IMDA reactions, the a-hydroxy ketone protocol" [trienes (154) and (155)] is the least convenient owing to the greater difficulty of triene preparation, the moderate reactivity of the trienes, and the destructive removal of the auxiliary. Consequently, the auxiliary systems developed by Evans and Oppolzer are more likely to find application in natural products synthesis. Indeed, Oppolzer has recently applied the IV-acyl sultam methodology to the asymmetric total synthesis of (-)-pulo upone (Figure 43). °... 

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