Natural products terpenes

Such routes have been used for the synthesis of natural products terpenes such as egomaketone (3-(4-methyl-3-pentenoyl)furan, perillene, ar-turmerone and iso-ar-turmerone [341], ar-curcumene [152], artemisia and isoartemisia ketones [342, 343], damascone [344], macrolides such as maysine [345], and pheromones with the sex attractant of the pine saw-fly [346],... 

This chapter discusses some of the more important natural products terpenes, steroids, alkaloids, fats, and prostaglandins. (Fats are primary natural products, but it is convenient to include them in this chapter.) The structures and various aspects of their biosynthesis and chemical reactions are presented in subsequent sections. Because entire books have been written on each of these groups of compounds, the coverage here is necessarily incomplete. However, the intent is to present some of the flavor of their chemistry. Many other classes of naturally occurring organic compounds are not included for reasons of space. 

Intermediate for the synthesis of natural products, terpenes, and substrates for Cope rearrangement, divinylcyclopropane and [3,3]-sigmatropic shift studies)... 

The structural feature that distinguishes terpenes from other natural products is the iso prene unit The carbon skeleton of myrcene (exclusive of its double bonds) corresponds to the head to tail union of two isoprene units... 

Isotope incorporation experiments have demonstrated the essential correctness of the scheme presented m this and preceding sections for terpene biosynthesis Considerable effort has been expended toward its detailed elaboration because of the common biosyn thetic origin of terpenes and another class of acetate derived natural products the steroids... 

Chemical iajections iato piae trees have been reported to have stimulatory effects on the natural production of resias and terpenes and may result ia high yields of these valuable chemicals. Combiaed oleoresin—timber production ia mixed stands of piae and timber trees is under development, and it appears that when short-rotation forestry is used, the yields of energy products and timber can be substantially higher than the yields from separate operations. 

Terpene-based hydrocarbon resins are typically based on natural products such as a-pinene, P-pinene, and ti-limonene [5989-27-5] which are obtained from the wood and citms industries, respectively. These resins, which were originally the preferred tackifiers for natural mbber appHcations, possess similar properties to aHphatic petroleum resins, which were developed later. Terpene-based resins have been available since the mid-1930s and are primarily used in the adhesives industry. 

Chlorinated Terpenes. A group of incompletely characterized insecticidal compounds has been produced by the chlorination of the naturally occurring terpenes. Toxaphene [8001-35-2] is prepared by the chlorination of the bicycHc terpene, camphene [79-92-5] to contain 67—69% chlorine and has the empirical formula C QH QClg. The technical product is a yellowish, semicrystalline gum (mp 65—90°C, d 1.64) and is a mixture of 175 polychloro... 

Terpenes are characterized as being made up of units of isoprene in a head-to-tail orientation. This isoprene concept, invented to aid in the stmcture deterrnination of terpenes found in natural products, was especially useful for elucidation of stmctures of more complex sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, and polyterpenes. The hydrocarbon, myrcene, and the terpene alcohol, a-terpineol, can be considered as being made up of two isoprene units in such a head-to-tail orientation (1). 

Other natural product-based resins also became widely used, such as the light colored Lewis acid oligomerized products of terpenes such as a-pinene, p-pinene, and limonene. These natural product resins are relatively expensive, however, and formulators now often use the newer, less expensive synthetic resins in present day natural rubber PSAs. These are termed the aliphatic or C-5 resins and are Lewis acid oligomerized streams of predominately C-5 unsaturated monomers like cis- and /rawi-piperylene and 2-methyl-2-butenc [37]. These resins are generally low color products with compatibility and softening points similar to the natural product resins. Representative products in the marketplace would be Escorez 1304 and Wingtack 95. In most natural rubber PSA formulations, rubber constitutes about 100 parts and the tackifier about 75-150 parts. 

I.4. Polyterpene resins. Terpene resins are obtained from natural terpene monomers obtained from naval stores, paper pulp production, and citrus juice production. Terpenes are found in almost all living plants, and the turpentine oil from pine trees is the most important source. 

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... 

It is the determination of volatile organic compounds produced from natural products that requires separation techniques that allow isolation of stereoisomers. The most commonly determined groups are the terpene and sesquiterpene species present in essential oils, which are used as key indicators of biological factors such as the growth season, geographic location, climate, etc. These species are also released directly into the atmosphere by very many plants and trees, and make a substantial contribution to global biogeochemical cycles. 

The introduction of synthetic materials into natural products, often described as adulteration , is a common occurrence in food processing. The types of compounds introduced, however, are often chiral in nature, e.g. the addition of terpenes into fruit juices. The degree to which a synthetic terpene has been added to a natural product may be subsequently determined if chiral quantitation of the target species is enabled, since synthetic terpenes are manufactured as racemates. Two-dimensional GC has a long history as the methodology of choice for this particular aspect of organic analysis (38). 

The diastereoselectivity observed can be explained by a synclinal transition state, probably influenced by chelation and/or stereoelectronic effects of the developing cation38. The minor product is formed via an antiperiplanar transition state. All compounds obtained are useful precursors for several spirocyclic natural products, such as terpenes like lubimine or acoradi-ene. 

Polyene cyclizations are of substantial value in the synthesis of polycyclic terpene natural products. These syntheses resemble the processes by which the polycyclic compounds are assembled in nature. The most dramatic example of biosynthesis of a polycyclic skeleton from a polyene intermediate is the conversion of squalene oxide to the steroid lanosterol. In the biological reaction, an enzyme not only to induces the cationic cyclization but also holds the substrate in a conformation corresponding to stereochemistry of the polycyclic product.17 In this case, the cyclization is terminated by a series of rearrangements. 

The possible occurrence of such major rearrangement of a compound s carbon skeleton, during the course of apparently unequivocal reactions, is clearly of the utmost significance in interpreting the results of experiments aimed at structure elucidation particularly when the actual product is isomeric with the expected one. Some rearrangements of this type are highly complex, e.g. in the field of natural products such as terpenes, and have often made the unambiguous elucidation of reaction pathways extremely difficult. The structure of reaction products should never be assumed but always confirmed as a routine measure lH and 13C n.m.r. spectroscopy have proved of enormous value in this respect. 

A recent example demonstrates that corals rely on induced biosynthesis of terpenes as a dynamic defense strategy as well. The induction of terpenoid secondary metabolites was observed in the sea whip Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae [162]. Levels of pseudopterosins 89-92, a group of diterpene glycosides with anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties (Scheme 23) [163-165], are increased in response predation by the mollusk Cyphoma gibbosum. First bioassays indicate that these natural products are involved in the chemical defense. 

Due to the interest of the accessible bicyclic systems in the field of natural products as potential precursors of terpenes, and to exploit the potentiality of... 

Feringa and co-workers described the tandem addition-aldol cyclization protocol leading to the formation of 6,6-, 6,7-, and 6,8-annulated bicyclic systems (Scheme 68).39 Using Cu(n)-29 as catalyst and functionalized organozinc reagents as nucleophiles, the conjugate addition reaction followed by aldol cyclization can offer highly enantioselec-tive annulation products (up to 98% ee). This method can be used in the synthesis of carbocyclic compounds, such as steroids, terpenes, and other natural products. 

The merit of Fischer s convention is that it enables the systematic stereochemical presentation of a large number of natural products, and this convention is still useful for carbohydrates or amino acids today. Its limitations, however, become obvious with compounds that do not resemble the model reference compound glyceraldehyde. For example, it is very difficult to correlate the terpene compounds with glyceraldehyde. Furthermore, selection of the correct orientation of the main chain may also be ambiguous. Sometimes different configurations may even be assigned to the same compound when the main chain is arranged in a different way. 

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