Propionate aldols, enantioselective

Some of the most impressive advances in the area of catalytic, enantioselective aldol addition reactions have taken place in the development of catalytic methods for enantioselective acetate aldol additions, a reaction type that has long been recalcitrant. Thus, although prior to 1992 a number of chiral-auxiliary based and catalytic methods were available for diastereo- and enantiocontrol in propionate aldol addition reactions, there was a paucity of analogous methods for effective stereocontrol in the addition of the simpler acetate-derived enol silanes. However, recent developments in this area have led to the availability of several useful catalytic processes. Thus, in contrast to the state of the art in 1992, it is possible to prepare acetate-derived aldol fragments utilizing asymmetric catalysis with a variety of transition-metal based complexes of Ti(IV), Cu(II), Sn(II), and Ag(I). 

Impressive advances in catalytic, enantioselective propionate aldol addition reactions have also been documented since 1992. Mikami has described a Ti(lV) catalyst readily prepared from BINOL and TiC O Pr. A propionate aldol addition process by Evans utilizes complexes prepared with bisoxazoline ligands and Sn(II) and Cu(II). In analogy to the acetate aldol... 

As above (eq 1), a major drawback of this reagent is the lack of a readily available enantiomer. There are many alternative methods for the enantioselective propionate aldol reaction. The most versatile chirally modified propionate enolates or equivalents are N-propionyl-2-oxazolidinones, a-siloxy ketones, boron enolates with chiral ligands, as well as tin enolates. Especially rewarding are new chiral Lewis acids for the asymmetric Mukaiyama reaction of 0-silyl ketene acetals. Most of these reactions afford s yw-aldols good methods for the anri-isomers have only become available recently. ... 

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>. 

The predominant formation of ann -carboxylic esters and thioesters results when the additives 13 or 14 are used to mediate aldol additions of silylketene acetals derived from propionates and propanethioates37. The enantioselective addition of a-unsubstituted esters or thioesters is also feasible with the borane 1437. 

Covalently bonded chiral auxiliaries readily induce high stereoselectivity for propionate enolates, while the case of acetate enolates has proved to be difficult. Alkylation of carbonyl compound with a novel cyclopentadienyl titanium carbohydrate complex has been found to give high stereoselectivity,44 and a variety of ft-hydroxyl carboxylic acids are accessible with 90-95% optical yields. This compound was also tested in enantioselective aldol reactions. Transmetalation of the relatively stable lithium enolate of t-butyl acetate with chloro(cyclopentadienyl)-bis(l,2 5,6-di-<9-isopropylidene-a-D-glucofuranose-3-0-yl)titanate provided the titanium enolate 66. Reaction of 66 with aldehydes gave -hydroxy esters in high ee (Scheme 3-23). 

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). 

The development of enantioselective aldol reactions has been widely studied in conjunction with the synthesis of natural products. Highly enantioselective aldol reactions have been achieved by employing chiral enolates of ethyl ketones and propionic acid derivatives.(1) On the other hand, achieving high asymmetric induction in the asymmetric aldol reaction of methyl ketones is still a problem.(2)... 

Significant efforts have extended the scope of catalytic enantioselective Mukaiyama aldol addition reactions beyond the acetate and propionate enoxysilanes and have been used traditionally. Recent reports describe novel addition reactions of silyl dienolates along with isobutyrate-derived enol silanes. 

Aldol Addition. A catalyst generated upon treatment of Cu(OTf)2 with the (5,5)-r-Bu-box ligand has been shown to be an effective Lewis acid for the enantioselective Mukaiyama aldol reaction. The addition of substituted and unsubstituted enolsilanes at -78 °C in the presence of 5 mol % catalyst was reported to be very general for various nucleophiles, including silyl dienolates and enol silanes prepared from butyrolactone as well as acetate and propionate esters. 

Analogous with the previous results of enol silyl ethers of ketones, nonsubstituted ketene silyl acetals are found to exhibit lower levels of stereoregulation, while the propionate-derived ketene silyl acetals display a high level of asymmetric induction. The reactions with aliphatic aldehydes, however, resulted in a slight reduction in optical and chemical yields. With phenyl ester-derived ketene silyl acetals, syn adducts predominate, but the selectivities are moderate in most cases in comparison with the reactions of ketone-derived silyl enol ethers. Exceptions are a,p-unsaturated aldehydes, which revealed excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities. The observed syn selectivity and re-face attack of nucleophiles on the carbonyl carbon of aldehydes are consistent with the aforementioned aldol reactions of ketone-derived enol silyl ethers. 

Enantioselective Aldol Reactions. The use of 1 for generating two contiguous stereocenters via an asymmetric aldol condensation has also been investigated,but only with marginal success. For example, reaction of the lithium enolate derived from tert-butyl propionate with the /Y-lithio derivative of 1, followed by condensation with benzaldehyde, provided a mixture of anti and syn aldol products in poor-to-modest % ee (eq 8). 

The 3f-promoted asymmetric aldol reaction of a variety of aldehydes with a silyl nucleophile derived from phenyl propionate E isomer, 98 %) resulted in moderate nnh-diastereoselectivity with relatively low enantioselectivity. With pivalaldehyde and the silyl nucleophile derived from ethyl propionate ElZ = 85 15), on the other hand, the syn isomer was obtained as a major product (22 1) with 96 % ee (Eq. 57) [43g]. 

In the reactions with the propionate derivatives, which provide synthetically useful a-methyl-/3-hydroxy ester derivatives, a combination of Sn(OTf)2, (5)-l-methyl-2-[(A(-l-naphthylamino)methyl]pyrrolidine, and Bu3Sn(OAc)2 gives better results (Eq. 20) [33,35]. The asymmetric aldol reactions proceed with higher enantioselectivity and, in addition, the reactions proceed faster with Bu3Sn(OAc)2 as an additive than with BusSnE A wide variety of aldehydes including aliphatic, aromatic, and a,/3-unsatu-rated aldehydes can be used in this reaction, and the aldol adducts are always obtained in high yields with perfect syn selectivity the enantiomeric excesses of these syn adducts are > 98 %. 

The use of these boryl complexes in catalytic, enantioselective additions to aldehydes by silyl ketene acetals has also been the subject of intense investigation by Yamamoto (Eq. 30) [108]. Although ethyl and benzyl acetate-derived enol silanes furnished racemic products, the phenyl acetate-derived trimethylsilyl ketene acetals proved optimal, giving adducts in up to 84% ee. Additionally, Yamamoto has documented the use of 184 in aldol addition reactions of propionate- and isobutyrate-derived enol silanes (Eqs. 31 and 32). Thus, the addition of the phenyl acetate derived (E)-enol silane afforded adducts as diastereomeric mixtures with the syn stereoisomer displaying up to 97% ee (Eq. 32). 

Tomioka and coworkers have reported the enantioselective reaction of 4-tert-butylcyclohexanone with lithium phosphonates in the presence of a chiral dimethoxyethane. They succeeded in the isolation of the diastereomeric al-dolates, one of which was formed with high enantioselectivity. Thermal treatment of this aldolate in propionic acid/NaOAc gave benzylidene-4-terf-butylcy-clohexane without any change in enantioselectivity [Eq. (24)] [72].These results indicate that the enantioselectivity of the reaction is controlled not only in the first deprotonation step but also by the discrimination of the carbonyl face, although the enantio determining step in this reaction is not in accord with Koga s results mentioned above. 

---