Prolines enantioselective Baylis-Hillman reactions

The Baylis-Hillman reaction (Scheme 3) of ethyl vinyl ketone with electron-deficient aromatic aldehydes (e.g. where R = 0-NO2C6H4), in MeCN or EtCN solution, has been found to proceed enantioselectively in presence of catalytic base (32) derived from proline. The Michael adduct formed between the catalyst and the vinyl... 

A highly enantioselective proline-catalysed intramolecular Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction of hept-2-enedial (111) has been reported. Addition of imidazole to the mixture resulted in an unusual inversion of enantioselectivity.149 The first example of a TiCU-mediated Morita-Baylis-Hillman-type reaction of cy-acetyl cyclic ketene dithioacetals with arylaldehydes has been described.150... 

As an extension of this work, the same authors have used polystyrene-supported proline as a recyclable catalyst in the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction of a range of aryl aldehydes with methyl or ethyl vinyl ketone. These reactions were performed in the presence of imidazole and provided a series of Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts in moderate to high yields (17 88%) combined with high enantioselectivities of up to 95% ee (Scheme 2.55). This study represented the first example of supported proline as heterogeneous catalyst for the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction. In addition, Zhou et al. reported that these reactions could be eatalysed by combinations of L-proline with chiral tertiary amines derived from various readily available chiral sources, such as L-proline or (5)-a-phenylethylamine. In these conditions, the Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts were obtained in reasonable chemical yields (34-97%) and low to good enantioselectivities (12 83% ee). In this study, it was demonstrated that the proline stereochemistry was the sole factor to determine the eonfiguration of the newly formed chiral centre. 

A phosphine sulfonamide derived from L-threonine promotes aza-Morita-Baylis-Hillman (aza-MBH) reactions of sulfinylimines in up to 96% yield and 97% ee. A review describes the synthesis of chiral amines under mild conditions via catalytic asymmetric aza-MBH reactions. Proline/DABCO (l,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane) co-catalysis of enantioselective aza-MBH reactions gives good to high yields and up to 99%... 

The Morita-Baylis-Hillman (MBH) reaction is a powerful carbon-carbon bondforming reaction that has found widespread application in organic synthesis. In 2005, Miller and Hong independently reported the highly enantioselective intramolecular MBH reaction. The Miller group applied a combination of (S)-pipecohc acid 79 and N-methylimidazole to catalyze the cychzation of heptenal derivatives 80 in aqueous THF (Scheme 36.21a) [27a]. In contrast, Hong and coworkers used simple L-proline and imidazole as the catalysts (Scheme 36.21b) [27b]. 

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