Pictet-Spengler

The reaction conditions applied are usually heating the amine with a slight excess of aldehyde and a considerable.excess of 2d-30hydrochloric acid at 100 °C for a few hours, but much milder ( physiological ) conditions can be used with good success. Diols, olefinic double bonds, enol ethers, and glycosidic bonds survive a Pictet-Spengler reaction very well, since phenol and indole systems are much more reactive than any of these acid sensitive functional groups (W.M. Whaley, 1951 J.E.D. Barton, 1965 A.R. Battersby, 1969). 

PICTET SPENGLER Isoquinollne Synthesis Isoquinoline synthesis ol phenethylammes and pyruvic acid derivatives... 

The Pictet-Spengler reaction is one of the key methods for construction of the isoquinoline skeleton, an important heterocyclic motif found in numerous bioactive natural products. This reaction involves the condensation of a P-arylethyl amine 1 with an aldehyde, ketone, or 1,2-dicarbonyl compound 2 to give the corresponding tetrahydroisoquinoline 3. These reactions are generally catalyzed by protic or Lewis acids, although numerous thermally-mediated examples are found in the literature. Aromatic compounds containing electron-donating substituents are the most reactive substrates for this reaction. 

In 1911, Ame Pictet and Theodor Spengler reported that P-arylethyl amines condensed with aldehydes in the presence of acid to give tetrahydroisoquinolines. Phenethylamine 6 was combined with dimethoxymethane 7 and HCl at elevated temperatures to give tetrahydroisoquinoline 8. Soon after, the Pictet-Spengler reaction became the standard method for the formation of tetrahydroisoquinolines. 

The Pictet-Spengler reaction is an acid-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of an intermediate imine of 2-arylethylamine, formed by condensation with a carbonyl compound, to give 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives. This condensation reaction has been studied under acid-catalyzed and superacid-catalyzed conditions, and a linear correlation had been found between the rate of the reaction and the acidity of the reaction medium. Substrates with electron-donating substituents on the aromatic ring cyclize faster than the corresponding unsubstituted compounds, supporting the idea that the cyclization process is involved in the rate-determining step of the reaction. 

The Pictet-Spengler condensation of indole bases and carbonyl compounds to form 3-carbolines involves a slightly different mechanism than the isoquinoline... 

The Pictet-Spengler reaction has been carried out on various solid support materials " and with microwave irradiation activation.Diverse structural analogues of (-)-Saframycin A have been prepared by carrying out the Pictet-Spengler isoquinoline synthesis on substrates attached to a polystyrene support. Amine 20 was condensed with aldehyde 21 followed by cyclization to give predominantly the cis isomer tetrahydroisoquinoline 22 which was further elaborated to (-)-Saframycin A analogues. 

One complication of the Pictet-Spengler condensation of benzylisoquinolines 24 is regiochemical control in the closure of ring C when activating substituents are present on the D ring. Experimentally, the ring-closure reaction yields predominantly the 10,11-disubstituted product 23 rather than the 9,10-disubstituted product 25. ... 

The oxa-Pictet-Spengler reaction has been used with success to prepare dihydrofurano[2,3-c]pyrans and isochromans from l-(3-furyl)alkan-2-ols and 2-(3 ,4 -dihydroxy)phenylethanol, respectively. Furanyl alcohol 32 reacted with isobutyraldehyde 33 in the presence of p-toluenesulfonic acid to give the corresponding CI5-5,7-diisopropyl 4,5-dihydro-7H-furano[2,3-c]pyran 34 in good yield. ... 

A formal Pictet-Spengler condensation to give 2,3-dihydro-lH-2-benzazepine-3-carboxylic acid 36 was achieved in quantitative yield via a sigmatropic rearrangement of ci5-2,3-methanophenylalanine 35 in the presence of paraformaldehyde and hydrochloric acid at room temperature. It is interesting to note that homophenylalanine 38 did not cyclize to give 37, even under vigorous reaction conditions. 

Several factors influence the diastereoselectivity of the Pictet-Spengler condensation to form 1,3-disubstituted and 1,2,3-trisubstituted tetrahydro-P-carbolines (39 and 40, respectively). The presence or absence of an alkyl substituent on the nitrogen of tryptophan has a large influence on the relative stereochemistry of the tetrahydro-P-carboline products formed from a condensation reaction with an aldehyde under various reaction conditions. 

One of the most common methods for introducing asymmetry into a Pictet-Spengler condensation reaction is to append a non-racemic auxiliary onto the indole amine or... 

The Pictet-Spengler condensation has been of vital importance in the synthesis of numerous P-carboline and isoquinoline compounds in addition to its use in the formation of alkaloid natural products of complex structure. A tandem retro-aldol and Pictet-Spengler sequence was utilized in a concise and enantioselective synthesis of 18-pseudoyohimbone. Amine 49 cyclized under acidic conditions to give the condensation product 50 in good yield. Deprotection of the ketone produced the indole alkaloid 51. 

Ebumamonine was assembled utilizing a Pictet-Spengler cyclization of hydroxy-lactam 52 in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid at low temperature to give a mixture of diastereomers 53 in 95% yield. These compounds were readily separated by chromatography and the a-epimer was further elaborated to give the natural product. 

Model studies directed toward the synthesis of Ecteinascidin 743 employed an elegant Pictet-Spengler cyclization of phenethylamine 54 and the 1,2-dicarbonyl compound 55 to assemble the spiro tetrahydroisoquinoline 56 in a stereospecific fashion. " The silica-catalyzed condensation reaction provided 56 in excellent yield. 

Of the well-known methods to prepare isoquinolines, including the Pictet-Spengler and Bischler-Napieralski cyclisation, the Pomeranz-Fritsch reaction is the only direct generally accepted method for the construction of the fully unsaturated isoquinoline ring system. 

Reaction of tryptamine with simple ketones has not been widely explored. Acetone in the presence of benzoyl chloride has been reported to yield 2-benzoyl-1,1 -dimethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carbo-line. That the keto group is much less reactive than the aldehyde group is indicated by the fact that j8-keto aldehydes, in the form of their acetals or sodium salts, react with tryptamine at the aldehyde function to yield the conjugated enamine 24, which undergoes ring closure via an intramolecular Michael addition. The potentialities of this interesting modification of the Pictet-Spengler reaction have not yet been fuUy explored. 

There can be little doubt that the crucial, acid-catalyzed step in these cyclization reactions, analogous to that in the Pictet-Spengler type ring closure, involves the charged species 64 (cf. 11). 

The acid-catalyzed conversion of the l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-j8-carboline derivative 337 (R = CHg) into the strychnine-type ring system 338 has been attributed to an equilibrium involving the protonated Schiff s base 339 of tryptamine (i.e., the intermediate in the Pictet-Spengler type synthesis of tetrahydro-j8-carbolines, cf. Section III, A, 1, a), and the a- (337) and the j8-condensation products (340). 

The second line of circumstantial evidence quoted in support of this hypothesis is the ready formation of l,2,3,4-tetrahydro-/3-carboline derivatives under pseudo-physiological conditions of temperature, pH, and concentration. Tryptamine and aldehydes, trypt-amine and a-keto acids, and tryptophan and aldehydes condense at room temperature in a Pictet-Spengler type intramolecular Mannich reaction in the pH range 5.2-8.0 (cf. Section III, A, 1, a). It was argued that experiments of this type serve as models for biochemical reactions and may be used in evidence. 

Pictet-Spengler syntheses of tryptamines containing hydroxy group at N atom of the side chain, and their transformation to tri-, tetra-, and pentacyclic systems related to eudistomins 98H(49)499. 

For that reason an intramolecular benzannulation was developed, which incorporates all components for the intramolecular alkoxycarbonylation into the naphthoquinone 105 [65]. Based on that strategy a short and convergent pathway for the synthesis of racemic deoxyfrenolicin 108 was accomplished. Xu et al. replaced the allylacetylene 100 in the reaction sequence for nanaomycin A by alkynoate 106. The benzannulation product 107 was an appropriate precursor for a subsequent tandem oxa-Pictet-Spengler cyclisation/DDQ-induced coupling reaction [66]. Following this strategy the total synthesis of enan-tiomerically pure deoxyfrenolicin could be accomplished (Scheme 48). 

The phenanthroindolizidine alkaloid (-)-antofine (95) exhibits high cytotoxicity to drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant cancer cells by arresting the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. In the first asymmetric total synthesis of (-)-95, the late-stage construction of pyrrolidine 94 for the final Pictet-Spengler cyclo-methylenation to 95 was performed by RCM and subsequent hydrogenation (Scheme 18) [67]. 

Scheme 18 Synthesis of the phenanthroindolizine alkaloid antofine (95) by a sequence of RCM, hydrogenation, and Pictet-Spengler cyclomethylenation [67]...

The Pictet-Spengler reaction has mainly been investigated as a potential source of polycyclic heterocycles for combinatorial apphcations or in natural product synthesis [149]. Tryptophan or differently substituted tryptamines are the preferred substrates in a cyclocondensation that involves also aldehydes or activated ketones in the presence of an acid catalyst. Several versions of microwave-assisted Pictet-Spengler reactions have been reported in the hter-ature. Microwave irradiation allowed the use of mild Lewis acid catalysts such as Sc(OTf)3 in the reaction of tryptophan methyl esters 234 with different substituted aldehydes (aliphatic or aromatic) [150]. Under these conditions the reaction was carried out in a one-pot process without initial formation of the imine (Scheme 86). 

An interesting modification of the Pictet-Spengler reaction has been described by Besson and co-workers that employed the degradation of DMSO under microwave irradiation [154]. DMSO undergoes decomposition by prolonged microwave heating, generating dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide. 

Scheme 86 Microwave-assisted one-pot Pictet-Spengler reaction...

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