Reduction pyridinium salts

Somewhat less useful is the aluminum hydride reduction of quaternary pyridinium salts. Reduction of the salts may be more conveniently performed by the use of sodium borohydride (see Section II, B, 6). Moreover, the aluminum hydride reductions of some dialkyl-pyridinium salts are accompanied by reductive cleavage of the pyridine ring,77 For example, methiodides of 2,5-dimethylpyridine,77 2-methyl-5-ethylpyridine,77 and 2-ethyl-5-methylpyridine61 afford mixtures of the corresponding tetrahydro and hexahydro bases along with a secondary amine, viz., 5-methylaminomethyl-2,4-hexadiene, 5-methylaminomethyl-2,4-heptadiene, and 7-methylamino-6-methyl-2,4-heptadiene, respectively. 

Pyridinium salts, 4-methoxy-l-methyl-3-nitro-reduction... 

Generated by one-electron reduction of the pyridinium salt. Stable, distillable, and only moderately reaetive to oxygen. 

When a pyridinium salt such as (27) is treated with sodium borohydride, the final product is the tetrahydropyridine (30). The mechanism for this reaction was proposed by Katritzky (65) and experimentally verified by Anderson and Lyle (66-68). The sequence is visualized as reduction of the... 

Lithium aluminum hydride reduction of pyridinium salts is very similar to sodium horohydride reduction and gives similar products, but the ratio of 1,2- and 1,4-dihydro- or tetrahydropyridines differs considerably (5). Isoquinolinium salts are reduced hy sodium borohydride or lithium aluminum hydride in a manner identical to pyridinium salts (5). Quino-linium salts are reduced by sodium borohydride to give primarily tetra-hydroquinolines (72) as shown by the conversion of 33 to 34 and 35. When lithium aluminum hydride is used, the product is usually the dihydroquinoline (73) as shown in the conversion of 36 to 37 and 38. 

Thus the critical synthetic 1,6-dihydropyridine precursor for the unique isoquinuclidine system of the iboga alkaloids, was generated by reduction of a pyridinium salt with sodium borohydride in base (137-140). Lithium aluminum hydride reduction of phenylisoquinolinium and indole-3-ethylisoquinolinium salts gave enamines, which could be cyclized to the skeletons found in norcoralydine (141) and the yohimbane-type alkaloids (142,143). 

The configuration of the amine was retained, except in the case of amino acid derivatives, which racemized at the stage of the pyridinium salt product. Control experiments showed that, while the starting amino acid was configurationally stable under the reaction conditions, the pyridinium salt readily underwent deuterium exchange at the rz-position in D2O. In another early example, optically active amino alcohol 73 and amino acetate 74 provided chiral 1,4-dihydronicotinamide precursors 75 and 76, respectively, upon reaction with Zincke salt 8 (Scheme 8.4.24). The 1,4-dihydro forms of 75 and 76 were used in studies on the asymmetric reduction of rz,>S-unsaturated iminium salts. 

Marazano and co-workers have used the Zincke reaction extensively to prepare chiral templates for elaboration to substituted piperidine and tetrahydropyridine natural products and medicinal agents. For example, 3-picoline was converted to Zincke salt 40 by reaction with 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene in refluxing acetone, and treatment with R- -)-phenylglycinol in refluxing n-butanol generated the chiral pyridinium 77. Reduction to... 

Direct addition of Grignard reagents to Zincke-derived chiral pyridinium salts such as 99, meanwhile, allowed subsequent reduction to 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridines (e.g., 100, Scheme 8.4.32). This strategy provided entry to asymmetric syntheses of (-)-lupetidin and (+)-solenopsin. Tetrahydropyridines prepared by reduction of chiral... 

Further elaboration of 152 resulted in the synthesis of (derived from the reduction of pyridinium salt 150b with excess of LiAlFt4 in THE Acid-catalyzed cyclization of 154 led to indoloquino-lizidine 155 (25% yield from 150b), a precursor of deplancheine (80TL2341) (Scheme 5). 

Omission of the phenolic group from cyclazocine results in a molecule which retains analgesic activity. In a classical application of the Grewe synthesis,15 the methylated pyridinium salt 54 is condensed with benzylmagnesium bromide. There is thus obtained the dihydropyridine 55. Treatment of that intermediate with sodium borohydride results in reduction of the iminium function to afford the tetrahydro derivative 56. Cyclization of 56 on treatment with acid leads to the desired benzomorphan nucleus. The cis compound (57) is separated from the mixture of isomers and demethylated by the cyanogen bromide procedure (58,... 

Activation of a primary alcohol 174 by in situ mesylation and nucleophilic attack of a pyridine nitrogen atom was used in the last steps of a synthesis of cyclohexa[tf]quinolizidines 176. These compounds were obtained by direct NaBH4 reduction of intermediate pyridinium salts 175, and were proposed as tricyclic models containing the ABC-part of 8-azasteroids (Scheme 30) <1999T9269>. 

A third method for the synthesis of cycl[3.2.2]azines, from iV-(aroylmethyl)pyridinium salts via indolizines, involves intramolecular (reductive) McMurry coupling of the latter. For example, 3,5-dibenzoylindolizines, obtained from 2-benzoyl-iV-phenacylpyridinium bromide as shown (Scheme 91), are cyclized using zinc and titanium(iv) chloride to give the 3,4-diphenylcyclazines 352 in high yield (>90%). The reaction cannot be applied, however, to... 

The reaction of ADC compounds with carbenes and their precursors has already been discussed in Section IV,A- In general, the heterocyclic products are not the result of 1,2-addition but of 1,4-addition of the carbene to the —N=N—C=0 system.1 Thus the ADC compound reacts as a 4n unit in a cheletropic reaction leading to the formation of 1,3,4-oxadiazolines. Recent applications include the preparation of spiro-1,3,4-oxadiazolines from cyclic diazoketones and DEAZD as shown in Eq. (14),133 and the synthesis of the acyl derivatives 85 from the pyridinium salts 86.134 The acyl derivatives 85 are readily converted into a-hydroxyketones by a sequence of hydrolysis and reduction reactions. 

Another classic reaction of pyridinium salts is reduction of the pyridine ring. Donohoe and co-workers reported the partial reduction of A-alkylpyridinium salts <060BC1071>, which is accompanied by subsequent alkylation and hydrolysis to furnish a range of 2,3-dihydropyrid-4-ones. This sequence has the potential to introduce a variety of functional groups at the C-2 position of 2,3-dihydropyrid-4-ones. Reduction of pyridinium ylides with sodium borohydride has also been reported in fair to good yields <06JHC709>. 

The key intermediate 124 was prepared starting with tryptophyl bromide alkylation of 3-acetylpyridine, to give 128 in 95% yield (Fig. 37) [87]. Reduction of 128 with sodium dithionite under buffered (sodium bicarbonate) conditions lead to dihydropyridine 129, which could be cyclized to 130 upon treatment with methanolic HC1. Alternatively, 128 could be converted directly to 130 by sodium dithionite if the sodium bicarbonate was omitted. Oxidation with palladium on carbon produced pyridinium salt 131, which could then be reduced to 124 (as a mixture of isomers) upon reaction with sodium boro-hydride. Alternatively, direct reduction of 128 with sodium borohydride gave a mixture of compounds, from which cyclized derivative 132 could be isolated in 30% yield after column chromatography [88]. Reduction of 132 with lithium tri-f-butoxyaluminum hydride then gave 124 (once again as a mixture of isomers) in 90% yield. 

According to another approach, treatment of A-[2-(indol-3-yl)ethyl]-l,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine (137), obtained from the corresponding pyridinium salt 136 by borohydride reduction, first with potassium rerf-butoxide, and then with acetic acid, led to ( )-l via key intermediate 135 in 78% yield (102). 

After its isolation, the structure of alkaloid deplancheine (7) was unambiguously proved by several total syntheses. In one of the first approaches (14), 1,4-dihydropyridine derivative 161, obtained by sodium dithionite reduction of A-[2-(indol-3-yl)ethyl]pyridinium salt 160, was cyclized in acidic medium to yield quinolizidine derivative 162. Upon refluxing 162 with hydrochloric acid, hydrolysis and decarboxylation took place. In the final step of the synthesis, the conjugated iminium salt 163 was selectively reduced to racemic deplancheine. 

A series of papers have been published by Lounasmaa et al. (122-128) on the synthesis of different alkaloid-like indolo[2,3-a]quinolizidine derivatives by means of reduction and subsequent cyclization of A-[2-(indol-3-yl)ethyl]piridi-nium salts, developed as a general method for indole alkaloid synthesis by Wenkert and co-workers (129, 130). Aimed at the total synthesis of vallesiachotamine (9), valuable model studies were reported (131-133). Reduction of pyridinium salts 183 and 184 with sodium dithionite and subsequent acid-induced cyclization represents a convenient method for preparing val-lesiachotamine-type derivatives 185 and 186, respectively. 

Several total syntheses of antirhine (11) and 18,19-dihydroantirhine (14) have been developed during the last decade. Wenkert et al. (136) employed a facile route to ( )-18,19-dihydroantirhine, using lactone 196 as a key building block. Base-catalyzed condensation of methyl 4-methylnicotinate (193) with methyl oxalate, followed by hydrolysis, oxidative decarboxylation with alkaline hydrogen peroxide, and final esterification, resulted in methyl 4-(methoxycar-bonylmethyl)nicotinate (194). Condensation of 194 with acetaldehyde and subsequent reduction afforded nicotinic ester derivative 195, which was reduced with lithium aluminum hydride, and the diol product obtained was oxidized with manganese dioxide to yield the desired lactone 196. Alkylation of 196 with tryptophyl bromide (197) resulted in a pyridinium salt whose catalytic reduction... 

Catalytic reduction in acidic solution gives a pyridinium salt. Complete saturation, affording indolizidines, results from reduction over platinum. 

An intriguing use of a quaternary ammonium salt in a two-phase reaction is to be found with the regeneration of 1 -benzyl-1,4-dihydronicotinamide by sodium dithionite in a biomimetic reduction of thiones to thiols [12], The use of sodium dithionite in the presence of sodium carbonate for the 1,4-reduction of the pyri-dinium salts to 1,4-dihydropyridines is well established but, as both the dithionite and the pyridinium salts are soluble in water and the dihydropyridine and the thione are insoluble in the aqueous phase and totally soluble in the organic phase, it is difficult to identify the role of the quaternary ammonium salt in the reduction cycle. It is clear, however, that in the presence of benzyltriethylammonium chloride, the pyridine system is involved in as many as ten reduction cycles during the complete conversion of the thione into the thiol. In the absence of the catalyst, the thione is recovered quantitatively from the reaction mixture. As yet, the procedure does not appear to have any synthetic utility. 

Pyridinium salts tethered to ketones also undergo reductive cyclization (Schemes 6... 

Scheme 6 Reductive cyclization of an oxoalkyl pyridinium salt to a quinolizidine.

Nicotinic acid and nicotinamide are precursors of the coenzymes NAD+ and NADP+, which play a vital role in oxidation-reduction reactions (see Box 7.6), and are the most important electron carriers in intermediary metabolism (see Section 15.1.1). We shall look further at the chemistry of NAD+ and NADP+ shortly (see Box 11.2), but note that, in these compounds, nicotinamide is bound to the rest of the molecule as an A-pyridinium salt. 

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