Pyrrolizidine alkaloids chiral synthesis

The strategy based on tandem cycloaddition leads to a short and efficient asymmetric synthesis of the pyrrolizidine necine base (-)-hastanecine, as shown in Scheme 8.32.163 Pyrrolizidine alkaloids have a long history for attracting the interest of synthetic chemists because of their physiological properties. The method of Denmark shown in this scheme is very simple and applied to synthesis of various alkaloids. The Lewis acid-promoted [4+2] cycloaddition between 2-acyloxy nitroalkene and chiral vinyl ether gives a nitronate that... 

The simplest nitroalkene, nitroethene, undergoes Lewis acid-promoted [4+2] cycloaddition with chiral vinyl ethers to give cyclic nitronates with high diastereoselectivity. The resulting cyclic nitronates react with deficient alkenes to effect a face-selective [3+2] cycloaddition. A remote acetal center controls the stereochemistry of [3+2] cycloaddition. This strategy is applied to synthesis of the pyrrolizidine alkaloids (+)-macronecine and (+)-petasinecine (Scheme 8.33).165... 

The Lewis acid-promoted tandem inter[4 + 2]/intra[3 + 2]-cycloaddition of the (fumaroyloxy)nitroalkene (124) with the chiral /i-silylvinyl ether (125) is the key step in the total synthesis of (+)-crotanecine (126), the necine base of a number of pyrrolizidine alkaloids (Scheme 46).237 The tandem inter[4 + 2]/intra[3 + 2]-cycload-ditions of nitroalkenes (127) with dipolarophiles attached to the /f-carbon of a vinyl ether (128) provides a method of asymmetric synthesis of highly functionalized aminocyclopentanes (129) (Scheme 47).238 trans-2-( 1 -Methyl-phenylethyl)cyclohex-anol has been developed as a new auxiliary in tandem 4 + 2/3 + 2-cycloadditions of nitroalkenes.239 The scope and limitations of the bridged mode tandem inter-[4 + 2]/intra[3 + 2]-cycloadditions involving simple penta-1,4-dienes are described in detail.240 A tandem intermolecular/intramolecular Diels-Alder cycloaddition was successfiilly used to synthesize a B/C cA-fused taxane nucleus (130) in 50% overall... 

DCP-hased Chiral Auxiliaries in Total Synthesis. DCP-based chiral auxiliaries have proven amenable to asymmetric total synthesis, including Denmark s syntheses of of the pyrrolizidine alkaloid (-)-rosmarinecine and the pentahydroxy pyrrolizidine alkaloid (+ )-casuarine. Denmark s synthesis of (+)-casuarine involves [4 + 2] cycloaddition of dienophile 15 with nitrobenzoate followed by [3 + 2] cycloaddition of the resulting nitronate 17 with a vinyl silane 18 (eq 10). During formation of the [4 + 2] cycloadduct, the relative configuration between C4 and C5 is a direct consequence of the vinyl ether geometry, while the stereochemistry at C6 is determined by the ability of the chiral auxiliary to differentiate the diastereotopic n faces (Re of Si) of the vinyl ether (termed internal diastereoselection). Thus, this tandem sequence... 

A new convenient procedure for the chiral alkylation of 5-acetoxy-2-pyrrolidinone (91) and 6-acetoxy-2-piperidinone (92) has been developed. This procedure should be useful for an extremely short chiral synthesis of the bicyclic alkaloids involving pyrrolizidine, indolizidine, and quinolizidine skeletons (88JA289). 

The pyrrolidine synthon (48) is useful for the chiral synthesis of pyrrolizidine, pyrrolidine, indolizidine and azabicyclic alkaloids (see Scheme 23). 

The enantioselective synthesis of monoprotected fra 5-2,5-pyrrolidine dialcohol 1119, a potentially useful intermediate for the construction of pyrrolizidine alkaloids, uses ( S)-malic acid as the chiral source and radical cyclization to fabricate the heterocycle (Scheme 164) [236]. The crucial intermediate 1112 is prepared from acetonide 454b by a Mitsunobu reaction of 1110 with oxazolidine-2,4-dione, resulting in inversion of configuration at the hydroxyl-bearing carbon. Reduction of the 4-carbonyl group of heterocycle 1111 with sodium borohydride followed by dehydration of the resulting alcohol furnishes 1112. 

They are used to prepare heterocycles such as 1,2-dihydropyridines, the pyrrolizidine alkaloid (+)-isoretronecanol and J-butyrolactone, and couple with allyIX to give 1,5-dienes. ot-EthoxybutenylSnBu is intermediate in the preparation of dihomoallyl ethers, and Me vSnCH2 allyl ethers provide for chiral transfer in the stereospecific synthesis of hydroxylated steroid side chains. The... 

This reaction was applied to the synthesis of natural polyhydroxylated in-dolizidines and pyrrolizidines [179]. For example, (H-)-epiaustralin, which is one of pyrrolizidine alkaloids produced by the plant Castanospermum australe, was synthesized through tandem inter[4 + 2]/intra[3 + 2] cycloaddition of silyl tethered nitroalkene and chiral vinyl ether promoted by MAPh (Scheme 6.151). Furthermore, tandem [4 + 2]/[3 + 2] cycloaddition of nitrocyclopentene and vinyl ether was used as a key step for the synthesis of 1-azafenestranes, a structurally unique family of compounds constructed by four fused cycles (Scheme 6.152) [180]. 

Bicyclic alkaloids. Nagao et al. have developed a general synthesis of chiral bicyclic alkaloids with a nitrogen atom at the ring juncture, such as pyrrolizidines [5.5], quinolizidines [6.6], and indolizidines [6.5], based on a highly diastereose-lective alkylation of 3-a>-chloroacyl-(4S)-isopropyl-l,3-thiazolidine-2-thiones (1, m = 1,2) with 5-acetoxy-2-pyrrolidinone (2, n = 1) or 6-acetoxy-2-piperidinone (2, n = 2). Thus the tin enolate of 1 (m = 1), prepared with Sn(OTf) and N-... 

The dipolar cycloaddition of nitronates has been applied to the synthesis of several natural products in the context of the tandem [4+2] / [3 + 2] nitroalkene cycloaddition process. All of these syntheses have focused on the construction of pyrrolidine, pyrrolizidine, and indolizidine alkaloids. For example, the synthesis of ( )-hastanecine (316), a necine alkaloid, involves the elaboration of a p-benzoy-loxynitroalkene 311 via [4 + 2] cycloaddition with a chiral vinyl ether (312) in the presence of a titanium based Lewis acid, to provide the nitronate 313 with high diastereo- and facial selectivity (Scheme 2.30) (69). The dipolar cycloaddition of... 

Stereoselective addition of hydrogen to a C=C double bond of an (S)-proline derivation was applied in the total synthesis of gephyrotoxin, a biologically active alkaloid 87). Optically active pyrrolizidine bases have been synthesized by Robins and Sakdarat88) from chiral hydroxyproline derivatives by hydrogenation (ds > 60 %). 

Over seven-hundred references are concerned with the isolation and chemistry of alkaloids, and approximately one-third of these are devoted to synthesis and biosynthesis. It is perhaps in these areas that the most notable research is to be found. Although it is probably invidious to attempt the exercise, a personal selection of highlights would include new results on the biosynthesis of quinoliz-idine alkaloids (p. 4), the first synthesis of an eleven-membered macrocyclic pyrrolizidine diester (p. 49), the synthesis of Poranthera alkaloids (p. 68), and, in the indole field, the synthesis of tryptoquivalines G and L (p. 152), of a chiral intermediate in the construction of heteroyohimbine alkaloids (p. 167), and of a catharanthine intermediate, using palladium catalysts (p. 186). 

SCHEME 16.27. Synthesis of chiral cyclobutanones and their conversion to four-membered carbocycles and pyrrolizidine/indohzine alkaloids. 

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