Oxacyclization

The conversion of a thiolactone to a cyclic ether can also be used as a key step in the synthesis of functionalized, stereochemically complex oxacycles (see 64—>66, Scheme 13). Nucleophilic addition of the indicated higher order cuprate reagent to the C-S double bond in thiolactone 64 furnishes a tetrahedral thiolate ion which undergoes smooth conversion to didehydrooxepane 65 upon treatment with 1,4-diiodobutane and the non-nucleophilic base 1,2,2,6,6-pentamethylpiperidine (pempidine).27 Regio- and diastereoselective hydroboration of 65 then gives alcohol 66 in 89 % yield after oxidative workup. Versatile vinylstannanes can also be accessed from thiolactones.28 For example, treatment of bis(thiolactone) 67 with... 

Tandem 5-exo-oxacyclizations of polyepoxides to form polycyclic ethers are well known. In Evans s synthesis of lonomycin A, diepoxide 66 underwent the desired... 

Finally, in a study of Lewis-acid-catalysed intramolecular attack of acetals on vinylsilanes, to produce allylically unsaturated oxacyclics, it has been found (75) that the alkene stereochemistry can control the mode of cyclization in an exo- or endocyclic sense, as shown here ... 

It has been demonstrated that group 6 Fischer-type metal carbene complexes can in principle undergo carbene transfer reactions in the presence of suitable transition metals [122]. It was therefore interesting to test the compatibility of ruthenium-based metathesis catalysts and electrophilic metal carbene functionalities. A series of examples of the formation of oxacyclic carbene complexes by metathesis (e.g., 128, 129, Scheme 26) was published by Dotz et al. [123]. These include substrates where double bonds conjugated to the pentacarbonyl metal moiety participate in the metathesis reaction. Evidence is... 

Cationic copolymerization of cyclic ethers, formals, esters and anhydrides has been thoroughly studied in recent years and sufficient information about it is now available. The propagating species involved in the cationic copolymerization of these oxacyclic monomers are believed to be the oxonium ions in most cases, but their detailed nature is dependent on monomer structure. From their copolymerization behavior, these monomers can be arranged in the following order of increasing car-bocationic character of the propagating species ... 

In the copolymerization of five- and six-membered oxacyclic monomers, the effective monomer concentration in the propagation reaction decreases because only the monomer in excess of equilibrium is available for copolymerization. However, it is not easy to determine the equilibrium monomer concentration in a copolymerization system. The following equilibrium is expected to exist in the copolymerization of THF. 

The tetrahydropyran moiety, another oxacycle, is also found in many biologically active natural products from marine and terrestrial origin. Consequently, an easy access to stereodefmed tetrahydropyrans by inventive and reliable strategies has been shown to be an important issue [12]. 

Based on a transformation described by Catellani and coworkers [61], the Lautens group [62] developed a three-component domino reaction catalyzed by palladium for the synthesis of benzo annulated oxacycles 6/1-114 (Scheme 6/1.30). As substrates, these authors used a m-iodoaryl iodoalkyl ether 6/1-113, an alkene substi-... 

Scheme 6/1.30. Postulated mechanism for the reaction of 6/1-113 to give annulated oxacycles 6/1-113.

Prolonged reaction of the triols 25 with trimethyl orthoacetate and a weakly acidic catalyst affords a mixture of the 5- and 6-membered oxacycles from which the tetrahydropyran is obtained on equilibration (Scheme 13). By selection of the reaction conditions, it is possible to obtain either ring system exclusively <00CC1781>. 

Another possible termination step that has been utilized for the cycloetherification of alkynols involves CO insertion and esterification of the resulting acyl metal with an exogenous alcohol. This process has typically employed MeOH as solvent and a stoichiometric oxidant since the catalyst is turned over in a reduced form. Following this mechanistic motif, a variety of alkynols have been cyclized under Pd(n) catalysis to five- and six-membered oxacycles with incorporation of methyl esters into the products.294,327-329 For the formation of five-membered ring products, this reaction has been carried out in both exo- and endo-mode to provide 1- and 2-substituted... 

A survey of Wacker-type etherification reactions reveals many reports on the formation of five- and six-membered oxacycles using various internal oxygen nucleophiles. For example, phenols401,402 and aliphatic alcohols401,403-406 have been shown to be competent nucleophiles in Pd-catalyzed 6- TZ /fl-cyclization reactions that afford chromenes (Equation (109)) and dihydropyranones (Equation (110)). Also effective is the carbonyl oxygen or enol of a 1,3-diketone (Equation (111)).407 In this case, the initially formed exo-alkene is isomerized to a furan product. A similar 5-m -cyclization has been reported using an Ru(n) catalyst derived in situ from the oxidative addition of Ru3(CO)i2... 

When Wacker-type reactions are performed under a CO atmosphere, the (3-H elimination pathway can be suppressed in favor of CO insertion and subsequent nucleophilic cleavage of the acyl metal species.399 This alkoxycarbonylation process has found widespread utility, particularly in the synthesis of five- and six-membered oxacyclic natural products. For example, the THF core of tetronomycin was prepared by the Pd-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation of 4-alkenol derivatives (Equations (117) and (118)), where stereocontrol was achieved by utilizing either the directing ability of a free hydroxyl or the conformational bias imposed by a bulky silyl ether.420 Additional examples making... 

When 1,3-dienes containing a tethered alcohol are subjected to Wacker-type reactions, the initial intramolecular oxypalladation event creates a 7r-allylpalladium species, which can then undergo an additional bond-forming process to effect an overall 1,4-difunctionalization of the diene with either cis- or // -stereochemistry (Scheme 18).399 An array of substrate types has been shown to participate in this reaction to generate both five- and six-membered fused or ro-oxacycles.435-437 Employing chiral benzoquinone ligands, progress toward the development of an asymmetric variant of this reaction has also been recorded, albeit with only modest levels of enantioselectivity (up to 55% ee).438... 

An interesting variant involves the use of an allylic alcohol as the alkene component. In this process, re-oxidation of the catalyst is unnecessary since the cyclization occurs with /Uoxygen elimination of the incipient cr-Pd species to effect an SN2 type of ring closure. Both five- and six-membered oxacycles have been prepared in this fashion using enol, hemiacetal, and aliphatic alcohol nucleophiles.439,440 With a chiral allylic alcohol substrate, the initial 7r-complexation may be directed by the hydroxyl group,441 as demonstrated by the diastereoselective cyclization used in the synthesis of (—)-laulimalide (Equation (120)).442 Note that the oxypalladation takes place with syn-selectivity, in analogy with the cyclization of phenol nucleophiles (1vide supra). 

D-Ribonolactone is a convenient source of chiral cyclopentenones, acyclic structures, and oxacyclic systems, useful intermediates for the synthesis of biologically important molecules. Cyclopentenones derived from ribono-lactone have been employed for the synthesis of prostanoids and carbocyclic nucleosides. The cyclopentenone 280 was synthesized (265) from 2,3-0-cyclohexylidene-D-ribono-1,4-lactone (16b) by a threestep synthesis that involves successive periodate oxidation, glycosylation of the lactol with 2-propanol to give 279, and treatment of 279 with lithium dimethyl methyl-phosphonate. The enantiomer of 280 was prepared from D-mannose by converting it to the corresponding lactone, which was selectively protected at HO-2, HO-3 by acetalization. Likewise, the isopropylidene derivative 282 was obtained (266) via the intermediate unsaturated lactone 281, prepared from 16a. Reduction of 281 with di-tert-butoxy lithium aluminum hydride, followed by mesylation, gave 282. 

McDonald and coworkers studied a series of tandem endo-selective and stereospecific oxacyclization of polyepoxides by reaction with Lewis acid [92-95]. Polyepoxides, such as 50, can be obtained from the epoxidation of triene 49 with ketone 26 (Scheme 8). This cascade cyclization of polyepoxides provides an efficient method to synthesize substituted polycyclic ether structures, which are present in a number of biologically active marine natural products. 

Me o-epoxides, nucleophilic ring-opening reactions by aryllithium/(—)-sparteine (11) have been realized by Alexakis and coworkers with very good differentiation between the enantiotopic positions . Eliminative desymmetrization reactions of me o-oxacycles such as 144 or 147, which are triggered by an enantiotopos-differentiating deprotonation... 

The Af,Af-diisopropylcarbamoyl group interferes with the catalyst, as seen in the transformation of the allylic ether 392a into the dihydrofuran 393a high amounts of 394 are required. The metathesis reaction to similar oxacycles 393b and 393c proceeds more... 

J. O. Hoberg, Formation of seven-membered oxacycles through ring expansion of cyclopropanated carbohydrates, J. Org. Chem., 62 (1997) 6615-6618. 

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