Oxindoles Subject

Oxindole 89 was cleanly demethylated upon treatment with boron tribromide. The resulting oxindole 90 was subjected to the prenylation conditions, and the desired alkylated product 91 was obtained in 52% yield. The epoxidation/Lewis acid-mediated cyclization proved to be successful on this substrate. The epoxide product was directly treated with SnCl4 in THF to provided the desired 92. When oxindole 92 was treated with NaBHt (1.6 equivjand BF3 OEt2 (3.5 equiv) in THF, the desired 93 was obtained. The indole 93 was treated with TBDMSC1 and imidazole in DMF, to provide the required O-silylated indole, which was easily converted to the gramine 94 through the well known Mannich procedure. 

The reduction of the indolinones 209 with NBH in methanol leads readily to the indoles 210 in 56-96% yield. Intermediacy of the corresponding alcohols has been proposed." The reduction of indoles and related compounds has been the subject of a previous review." Oxindoles (211) are reduced with LAH to indoles (212) but in low yields. Small amounts of the indolines 213 are also obtained. Dimerization on hydride reduction has also been recorded." ... 

Monoterpene Bases.—Yohimbine-Corynantheine (and Related Oxindoles)-Pier aline Group. It is well known that 3,4-dehydroyohimbane (35a) is reduced by zinc-acetic acid to a mixture of yohimbane (35c) and i/ -yohimbane (35d) however, when 10-methoxy-3,4-dehydroyohimbane (35b) was similarly treated, a 2,3,4,7-tetrahydro-derivative (17 % yield) was formed as well as the corresponding 10-methoxy-yohimbanes. It was shown that this did not arise by further reduction of either of the methoxy-yohimbanes and no explanation is yet available for this interesting difference. Reserpine, a 6-methoxyindole, underwent C(3)-N(4) bond fission on reaction with zinc-acetic acid, as did indoles with no ring A methoxy-group. Cleavage of the C(3)-N(4) bond with the formation of N(4)-cyano-C(3)-alkoxy- or hydroxy-seco-derivatives was observed when yohimbine, i/ -yohimbine, and methyl reserpate were subjected to von Braun degradation conditions in alcohol or aqueous solution. 

The easy condensation of aldehydes with 3-monosubstituted oxindoles has been further exploited by Ban and co-workers, who synthesized several 3-spirooxindole derivatives 48). The approach was used in the stereospecific synthesis of racemic iV-methylrhynchophyllane (Chart X). The Iraws-diethylcyclopentanone CVIIIa was subjected to Baeyer-Villiger oxidation to yield the threo lactone CIX, which was converted to the chloroaldehyde CXI, by successive reaction with phosphorus... 

There are also excellent total syntheses of spirotryprostatins which do not apply intermolecular functionalisation of the indole 3-position with a C5 prenyl-type precursor and are, therefore, not discussed in detail. Carreira and co-workers started from 3-diazo-2-oxindole, which was used in a Rh(I)-catalysed cyclopropanation of 1,3-pentadiene. The resulting cyclopropane was subjected to Mgl2-catalysed ring expansion and added to an imine affording the spiro[5.5] partial structure [130, 131]. Overman and Rosen built up the indole system by intramolecular Heck reaction of a functionalised iodoaniline [132,133]. In a model study building up the indole system, Cacchi and co-workers synthesised 3-prenylindoles via Pd-catalysed cyclisation of orf/io-alkynyltrifluoroacetanilides with prenyl esters [134]. 

Myriad examples are known of oxindoles reacting to form indoles without prior carbonyl activation. Given (he vast scope of this subject, only a few early examples will be cited in addition to recent studies. Several groups have annulated oxindoles to access fused-indole heterocycles. Ila, Junjappa, and coworkers prepared pyrido[2,3-( ]indoles [61, 62] and 67/-indolo[2,3-fc]quinolines [63] using this approach (Scheme 9, equation 1). Adib and colleagues reported a simple synthesis of 9/7-pyrimido[4,5-Z ]indoles from oxindoles (eqnation 2) [64], and Bazgir and coworkers described a four-component one-pot a-carboUne synthesis... 

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