Polyene cyclization examples

Other, removable cation-stabilizing auxiliaries have been investigated for polyene cyclizations. For example, a sdyl-assisted carbocation cyclization has been used in an efficient total synthesis of lanosterol. The key step, treatment of (257) with methyl aluminum chloride in methylene chloride at —78° C, followed by acylation and chromatographic separation, affords (258) in 55% yield (two steps). When this cyclization was attempted on similar compounds that did not contain the C7P-silicon substituent, no tetracycHc products were observed. Steroid (258) is converted to lanosterol (77) in three additional chemical steps (225). 

Polyene Cyclization. Perhaps the most synthetically useful of the carbo-cation alkylation reactions is the cyclization of polyenes having two or more double bonds positioned in such a way that successive bond-forming steps can occur. This process, called polyene cyclization, has proven to be an effective way of making polycyclic compounds containing six-membered and, in some cases, five-membered rings. The reaction proceeds through an electrophilic attack and requires that the double bonds that participate in the cyclization be properly positioned. For example, compound 1 is converted quantitatively to 2 on treatment with formic acid. The reaction is initiated by protonation and ionization of the allylic alcohol and is terminated by nucleophilic capture of the cyclized secondary carbocation. 

As the intermediate formed in a polyene cyclization is a carbocation, the isolated product is often found to be a mixture of closely related compounds resulting from competing modes of reaction. The products result from capture of the carbocation by solvent or other nucleophile or by deprotonation to form an alkene. Polyene cyclizations can be carried out on reactants that have structural features that facilitate transformation of the carbocation to a stable product. Allylic silanes, for example, are stabilized by desilylation.12... 

The incorporation of silyl substituents not only provides for specific reaction products but can also improve the effectiveness of polyene cyclization. For example, although cyclization of 2a gave a mixture containing at least 17 products, the allylic silane 2b gave a 79% yield of a 1 1 mixture of stereoisomers.13 This is presumably due to the enhanced reactivity and selectivity of the allylic silane. 

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. 

Scheme 10.1 gives some representative examples of laboratory syntheses involving polyene cyclization. The cyclization in Entry 1 is done in anhydrous formic acid and involves the formation of a symmetric tertiary allylic carbocation. The cyclization forms a six-membered ring by attack at the terminal carbon of the vinyl group. The bicyclic cation is captured as the formate ester. Entry 2 also involves initiation by a symmetric allylic cation. In this case, the triene unit cyclizes to a tricyclic ring system. Entry 3 results in the formation of the steroidal skeleton with termination by capture of the alkynyl group and formation of a ketone. The cyclization in Entry 4 is initiated by epoxide opening. 

As with carbocation-initiated polyene cyclizations, radical cyclizations can proceed through several successive steps if the steric and electronic properties of the reactant provide potential reaction sites. Cyclization may be followed by a second intramolecular step or by an intermolecular addition or alkylation. Intermediate radicals can be constructed so that hydrogen atom transfer can occur as part of the overall process. For example, 2-bromohexenes having radical stabilizing substituents at C(6) can undergo cyclization after a hydrogen atom transfer step.348... 

Another example is the cyclization of the racemic allylic alcohol 232 at -80°C which furnished the racemic tetracyclic bis-olefin 233 in 70% yield (89, 90). Ozonolysis of 233 gave the bicyclic triketone aldehyde 234 which underwent under acidic conditions a double intramolecular aldol cyclodehydration to produce racemic 16,17-dehydroprogesterone 235. This represents the first synthesis of a steroid via the now so-called "biomimetic" polyene cyclization method. 

This polyene cyclization is the first reported example that employs the /S -keto ester unit as initiator. Substances related to 3 exhibit anti-tumor properties. 

Electrocyclic reactions involve the cyclization of conjugated polyenes. For example, 1,3,5-hexatriene cyclizes to 1,3-cyclohexadiene on heating. Electrocyclic reactions can occur by either conrotatory or disrotatory paths, depending on the symmetry of the terminal lobes of the tt system. Conrotatory cyclization requires that both lobes rot lte in the same direction, whereas disrotatory cyclization requires that the lobes rotate in oj )posite directions. The reaction course in a specific case can be found by looking at the symmetry of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). 

The ene and Prins reactions are not mechanistically distinct. Coverage will therefore be organized by the nature of the carbonyl compound, with intermolecular reactions presented first, followed by intramolecular reactions. The emphasis will be on material published since the field has been reviewed " and on examples demonstrating the stereo-, regio- and chemo-selectivity of these reactions. Coverage is restricted to the addition of carbonyl and thiocarbonyl compounds to simple alkenes. Addition of carbonyl compounds to vinylsilanes, allylsilanes and enol ethers is covered in the following chapters. Addition of imines and iminium compounds to alkenes is presented in Part 4 of this volume. Ene reactions with alkenes and alkynes as enophiles are covered in Volume 5, Chapter 1.1. Use of aldehydes and acetals as initiators for polyene cyclizations is covered in Volume 3, Chapter 1.6. 

The main disadvantage of the mercuronium ion induced polyene cyclizations is that mostly mixtures of mono-, bi-, tri-, etc. cyclic products are observed. Several examples generating trans-decalin structures via two consecutive 6-endo steps in moderate to useful yields are shown below101 ... 

Three major reaction sequences or strategies dominate steroid syntheses (1) Diels-Alder reactions, (2) all kinds of aldol and Michael addition reactions, and (3) biomimetic syntheses corresponding to polyene cyclizations. We shall give a few examples of each of these approaches, starting with the polyene cyclizations (Akhrem and Titov, 1970 Anand et al., 1970 Blickenstaff et al., 1974). 

A good example of this approach is the Johnson polyene cyclization reaction. The biogenetic... 

A spectacular example of cationic cyclization is the Johnson polyene cyclization, described in Section 10.8.A. Polyenes such as squalene are expected to assume a steroid-like conformation in the lowest energy form (sec. 1.5.E), based on the biogenetic preparation of cholesterol from squalene. In practice, treatment of polyenes with acid led to a very low yield of tri- or tetracyclic products, giving instead significant amounts of polymeric material. Diligent work over many years prevailed, however, and Johnson solved the many problems (as described in sec. 10.8.A) to make this reaction an excellent and efficient synthetic route to di-, tri-, and tetracyclic molecules. One of the later examples of polyene cyclization uses an allyl silane to quench the cyclization process. A Lewis acid was used to initiate the reaction via reaction with the acetal. Treatment of... 

Intramolecular carbopalladation has widely been used to assemble the polycyclic frameworks of natural products. The majority of these carbopalladations are intramolecular Heck reactions and examples of 5-exo, 6-exo, 1-exo, -exo, 6-endo, S-endo, and macro-cyclic ring closures will be presented (Scheme 12). Examples fall into two basic categories vinylic substitution (75- 76) and quaternary center construction (77- 78). Investigation of domino reactions like polyene cyclizations (79- 80) and asynunetric Heck reactions (81 82) has been fruitful. 

For nongroup-selective examples, one of the first reports of an enantioselective intramolecular Mizoroki-Heck reaction was a polyene cyclization (Scheme 12.22) [23b], The trienyl triflate 5 underwent two intramolecular cyclization reactions to give the tricycle 6 in high yield and 45% ee. A cascade intramolecular Mizoroki-Heck-hydride capture sequence was used in the synthesis of retinoid derivatives from aryl iodide 100 to give benzofuran 101 in 80-81% ee [49]. Poor enantioselectivity was observed when neutral reaction conditions were employed. 

Another example of an enantioselective polyene cyclization is the formation of tetracycle 103 (Scheme 12.23). Enantioselectivities of the 6-exo followed by 6-endo cyclization were moderate to good using BINAP. Of note is the substantial increase in enantioselectivity... 

---