Pheromones carbonyl protection

This reaction provides a useful way of introducing a double bond next to a carbonyl group. Here it is in a synthesis by Barry Trost of the Queen Bee Substance (the compound fed by the workers to those bee larvae destined to become queens). The compound is also a pheromone of the termite and is used to trap these destructive pests. Trost started with the monoester of a dicarboxylic acid, which he converted to a methyl ketone by reacting the acyl chloride with a cuprate. The ketone was then protected as a dioxolane derivative to prevent it enolizing, and the sulfur was introduced by reacting the enolate of the ester with the sulfur electrophile MeSSMe. 

Keto aldehyde 191 (Scheme 2.87) was prepared as a common precursor in the synthesis of a series of isoprenoid pheromones. One of the synthetic options required the selective reduction of a ketone carbonyl in this compound. Under mild conditions of acetalization (weak acid, methanol), only the aldehydic function of 191 was affected to form a mono-protected derivative, 192. Reduction of the keto group in the derivative with sodium borohydride and subsequent removal of the acetal protecting group gave the desired hydroxy aldehyde 193. ... 

Pyrolysis of sulfoxides provides a convenient method for introducing unsaturation at the position a- to carbonyl compounds. Formation of the enolate and reaction with dimethyl (or diphenyl) disulfide gives the a-methylthio (or phenylthio) derivative. Oxidation with a suitable oxidant, such as mCPBA or NaI04, gives the sulfoxide, which eliminates sulfenic acid on heating to give the a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compound. For example, the methyl ester of a pheromone of queen honey bees was synthesized from methyl 9-oxodecanoate after initial protection of the ketone as the acetal (2.24). The -isomer usually predominates in reactions... 

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