Propionate aldol addition diastereoselective

New auxiliaries and reaction methods are now available for the stereoselective synthesis of all members of the stereochemical family of propionate aldol additions. These also include improvements on previously reported methods that by insightful modification of the original reaction conditions have led to considerable expansion of the versatility of the process. In addition to novel auxiliary-based systems, there continue to be unexpected observations in diastereoselective aldol addition reactions involving chiral aldehyde/achiral enolate, achiral aldehyde/chir-al enolate, and chiral aldehyde/chiral enolate reaction partners. These stereochemical surpri.ses underscore the underlying complexity of the reaction process and how much we have yet to understand. 

The same bisoxazoline Cu(II) and Sn(II) complexes have been utilized successfully in the corresponding propionate aldol addition reactions (Scheme 8-7). A remarkable feature of these catalytic processes is that either syn or anti simple dia-stereoselectivity may be accessed by appropriate selection of either Sn(II) or Cu(II) complexes. The addition of either - or Z-thiopropionate-derived silyl ke-tene acetals catalyzed by the Cu(II) complexes afford adducts 78, 80, and 82 displaying 86 14-97 3 syn anti) simple diastereoselectivity. The optical purity of the major syn diastereomer isolated from the additions of both Z- and i -enol silanes were excellent (85-99% ee). The stereochemical outcome of the aldol addition reactions mediated by Sn(Il) are complementary to the Cu(U)-catalyzed process and furnish the corresponding anp -stereoisomers 79, 81, and 83 as mixtures of 10 90-1 99 syn/anti diastereomers in 92-99% ee. 

One of the pervasive problems in asymmetric synthesis has been the development of stereoselective acetate ester aldol reactions. Although a number of chiral auxiliaries perform superbly well in diastereoselective propionate aldol additions, these have, with rare exceptions, been unsuccessful in the corresponding additions of unsubstituted acetate-derived enolates [19, 63, 64). Braun s disclosure of a stereoselective acetate aldol addition reaction with 103 was an important milestone in the development of the field (Scheme 4.11) [63, 65]. The diol auxiliary can easily be prepared from mandelic acid esterification of the secondary alcohol is obsei ved, without interference from the tertiary counterpart. Its use has been showcased in a number of syntheses [53]. The high yield and diastereoselectivity generally obtained with 103 were highlighted by investigators at Merck in the construction of the chiral lactone fragment that is common in a number of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, such as compactin (105) [66]. 

The allylation and crotylation of aldehydes provide attractive alternatives to asymmetric acetate and propionate aldol addition reactions for the construction of /1-hydroxy aldehydes or ketones (Scheme 5.2 see also Chapter 4). In analogy to propionate aldol addition reactions, an important stereochemical feature involving the addition of substituted allylation reagents to aldehydes is simple diastereoselectivity namely, the formation of 1,2-syn versus 1,2-anti products. Although the underlying reasons for absolute and relative induction have yet to be studied in mechanistic detail for many of these processes, there are a collection of methods that reliably and predictably furnish optically active adducts. 

In general, chiral propanoates providing simple diastereoselectivity (in favor of yyn-aldols), combined with a reasonable degree of auxiliary-induced stereoselectivity, are rare. Numerous terpenoid- and carbohydrate-derived propionates do not display satisfactory syn selectivity60. Similarly, the titanium(IV) chloride promoted aldol addition of the following JV-metbylephe-drine derived silylketene acetal leads to the formation of the. mi-adduct in the moderate diastereomeric ratio of 78 22 (syn-adduct sum of the other stereoisomers)61. 

Catalysis with Bisoxazoline Complexes of Sn(II) and Cu(II). The bisoxazoline Cu(IT) and Sn(II) complexes 81-85 that have proven successful in the acetate additions with aldehydes 86,87, 88 also function as catalysts for the corresponding asymmetric propionate Mukaiyama aldol addition reactions (Scheme 8B2.8) [27]. It is worth noting that eithersyn or anti simple diastereoselectivity may be obtained by appropriate selection of either Sn(II) or Cu(II) complexes (Table 8B2.12). 

Woerpel has recently reported a tandem double asymmetric aldol/C=0 reduction sequence that diastereoselectively affords propionate stereo-triads and -pentads commonly found in polyketide-derived natural products (Scheme 8-2) [14], When the lithium enolate of propiophenone is treated with excess aldehyde, the expected aldolates 30/31 are formed however, following warming to ambient temperature a mono-protected diol 34 can be isolated. In a powerful demonstration of the method, treatment of 3-pentanone with 1.3 equiv of LDA and excess benzaldehyde yielded product in corporating five new stereocenters in 81% as an 86 5 5 3 mixture of diastereomers (Eq. (8.8)). A series of elegant experiments have shown that under the condition that the reaction is conducted, the aldol addition reaction is rapidly reversible with an irreversible intramolecular Tischenko reduction serving as the stereochemically determining step (32 34, Scheme 8-2). 

The utility of thiazolidinethione chiral auxiliaries in asymmetric aldol reactions is amply demonstrated in a recent enantioselective synthesis of apoptolidinone. This synthesis features three thiazolidinethione propionate aldol reactions for controlling the configuration of 6 of 12 stereogenio centers <05JA13810>. For example, addition of aldehyde 146 to the enolate solution of A -propionyl thiazolidinethione 145 produces aldol product 147 with excellent selectivity (>98 2) for the Evans syn isomer. Compound 145 also undergoes diastereoselective aldol addition with bisaryl aldehyde 148 to give the Evans syn product 149, which is converted to eupomatilone-6 in 6 steps <05JOC9658>. 

Aside from thiazolidinethione 234 various related Af-acylimides like 237a-d, also shown in Scheme 4.53, served for acetate aldol additions mostly through the titanium enolates and led to diastereomeric ratios in the range from 90 10 to 95 5 [35a, 120]. In most of these procedures, the diastereoselectivity is lower than that reached by Evans propionate aldol protocols [121]. 

Oppolzer s auxiliary opened, in addition, an access to a/iti-configured aldol adducts 272 (Scheme 4.62). For this purpose, silyl ketene N,0-acetal 271 was prepared from propionic sultam 92, obtained as a single diastereomer, according to the NMR spectra of the crude product, and isolated as a crystalline compound it was characterized as a cis-silicon enolate by a crystal structure analysis. For the subsequent Mukaiyama aldol addition, titanium tetrachloride was found to be the optimum Lewis acid to yield the awti-diastereomers 272 in excellent diastereoselectivity. Their formation under attack of the enolate to the Re-face of the aldehyde is consistent with an open transition state 275, wherein the Lewis acid-coordinated aldehyde is located on the face opposite to the sulfonyl group (Scheme 4.62) [136b]. An alternative approach to the a fi-aldol adducts was also elaborated, based upon cA-boron enolates 267 when they are reacted with aldehydes in the presence of titanium tetrachloride, an ti-selective aldol addition occurs leading to the products 272 rather than to sy -aldols 268 that result in the absence of the Lewis acid [136c]. 

In addition to the advances in auxiliary-controlled acetate aldol addition reactions, a number of innovative solutions for the preparation of propionate-derived 1,2-anti products have also appeared using auxiliaries other than Evans oxazolidinone. The various successful approaches to anti aldol adducts stem from the design of novel auxiliaries coupled with the study of metal and base effects on the reaction stereochemistry. Masamune documented that the addition of optically active ester enolate 112 to aldehydes afforded anti aldol adduct 113 in superb yield and diastereoselectivity (Equation 10) [70]. After careful selection of the reaction conditions for the enolization of the ester [71], the aldol addition was successfully carried out with a broad range of substrates including aliphatic, aromatic, unsaturated, and functionalized aldehydes. An attractive feature of this process is the subsequent facile removal of the auxiliary (LiOH, THF/H2O) to afford the corresponding acid without concomitant deterioration of the configurational integrity of the products [70]. 

These first examples of the catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction not only provided first results that could be utilized for such transformations but also highlighted the problems that had to be overcome in further elaborations of this general method. It was shown that truly catalytic systems were required to perform an enantioselective and diastereoselective vinylogous aldol reaction, and it became obvious that y-substituted dienolates that serve as propionate-acetate equivalents provide an additional challenge for diastereoselective additions. To date, the latter problem has only been solved for diastereoselective additions under Lewis acid catalysis (vide infra) (Scheme 4, Table 3). 

Aldol Reactions of Ester Derivatives. The Titanium(IV) C/tlor/dc-catalyzed addition of aldehydes to 0-silyl ketene acetals derived from acetate and propionate esters proceeds with high stereoselectivity. Formation of the silyl ketene acetal was found to be essential for high diastereoselectivity. Treatment of the silyl ketene acetal, derived from deprotonation of the acetate ester with LICA in THF and silyl trapping, with a corresponding aldehyde in the presence of TiCU (1.1 equiv) afforded the addition products in 93 7 diastereoselectivity and moderate yield (51-67%). Similarly, the propionate ester provides the anti-aldol product in high antilsyn selectivity (14 1) and facial selectivity (eq 4). 

Diastereoselective addition of a propionate unit to an achiral aldehyde is an important process in organic synthesis (see Section 1.7.2.3 for the reaction with chiral aldehydes). This process can be achieved with full control by the judicious choice of a thiol ester and a dialkylboryl triflate. As shown in Scheme 16, the (0)-enolate (19) generated from S-r-butyl propanethioate, dicyclopentylboryl triflate and diisopropylethylamine furnishes, upon reaction with an aldehyde, the anti aldol product (20). The syn product (21) is obtained from the Z(0)-enolate (22) derived from the reaction of 5-phenyl propanethioate with 9-borabicyclo[3.3.1]non-9-yl triflate (9-BBNOTf). 

Aside from the outstanding and reliable diastereoselectivity, two more advantageous features helped the method to success the easy, one-step preparation of various N-acylated derivatives from the parent oxazolidinones and the cleavage of the auxiliary by hydrolysis, transamidation to the Weinreb amide, esterification, and reduction, as outlined in Section 4.1. A typical Evans aldol procedure with phenylalanine-derived oxazolidinone (S)-47, including the preparation of propionic imide 73 and cleavage of the auxiliary, is shown in Scheme 4.47. Typically, the boron aldolate resulting from the addition to the aldehyde has to be cleaved by an oxidative work-up. The hydrolysis of the aldol adduct 211 occurs without detectable epimerization that liberates diastereomerically and enantiomerically pure carboxylic acid 212 besides the auxiliary (S)-47 [110]. 

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