Esters pyruvate

Diethyl oxalate (29.2 g, 0.20mol) and 4-bromo-2-nitrotoluene (21.6 g, O.lOmol) were added to a cooled solution of sodium cthoxide prepared from sodium (4.6 g, 0.20 mol) and ethanol (90 ml). The mixture was stirred overnight and then refluxed for 10 min. Water (30 ml) was added and the solution refluxed for 2h to effect hydrolysis of the pyruvate ester. The solution was cooled and concentrated in vacuo. The precipitate was washed with ether and dried. The salt was dissolved in water (300 ml) and acidified with cone. HCl. The precipitate was collected, washed with water, dried and recrystallizcd from hexane-EtOAc to give 15.2 g of product. 

Photolysis of 4-hydroxyazetidin-2-one pyruvate ester Photolysis of trialkylsuccinimides... 

The various reactions of aminophosphines with ketones have been discussed. Reaction of (52) with benzaldehyde presumably takes place by attack at carbonyl carbon followed by a proton shift. " The same site of initial attack is suggested for the reaction of pyruvate esters with (53), although in this case it is followed by rearrangement. 

As an extension of this work, these authors have applied this catalyst system to vinylogous asymmetric Mukaiyama-type aldol reactions, involving silyl vinyl ketene acetals and pyruvate esters. These reactions afforded the corresponding y,5-unsaturated a-hydroxy diesters with quaternary centres in high yields and enantioselectivities of up to 99% ee (Scheme 10.25). It was shown that the presence of CF3CH2OH as an additive facilitated the turnover of the catalyst. 

Other types of catalysts that are active in Mannich reactions include the Cu-bis-oxazolines.195 Most of the cases examined to date are for relatively reactive imines, such as those derived from glyoxylate or pyruvate esters. 

Entry 4 shows the reaction of 9-(E-2-butenyl)-9BBN with methyl pyruvate. This reaction is not very stereoselective, which is presumably due to a modest preference for the orientation of the methyl and methoxycarbonyl groups in the TS. Only use of an extremely sterically demanding pyruvic ester achieved high diastereoselectivity. 

Methyl pyruvate has been prepared from the silver salt of pyruvic acid and methyl iodide,3 and from the free acid by the alcohol-vapor method without a catalyst.4 Pyruvic esters have also been prepared by the dehydrogenation of lactic acid esters.5... 

Interestingly, the Fischer indole synthesis does not easily proceed from acetaldehyde to afford indole. Usually, indole-2-carboxylic acid is prepared from phenylhydrazine with a pyruvate ester followed by hydrolysis. Traditional methods for decarboxylation of indole-2-carboxylic acid to form indole are not environmentally benign. They include pyrolysis or heating with copper-bronze powder, copper(I) chloride, copper chromite, copper acetate or copper(II) oxide, in for example, heat-transfer oils, glycerol, quinoline or 2-benzylpyridine. Decomposition of the product during lengthy thermolysis or purification affects the yields. 

An interesting application of this Norrish type II reaction consists in the photochemical oxydation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds by irradiation of their pyruvic esters (4.11) 412). 

The utilization of copper complexes (47) based on bisisoxazolines allows various silyl enol ethers to be added to aldehydes and ketones which possess an adjacent heteroatom e.g. pyruvate esters. An example is shown is Scheme 43[126]. C2-Symmetric Cu(II) complexes have also been used as chiral Lewis acids for the catalysis of enantioselective Michael additions of silylketene acetals to alkylidene malonates[127]. 

The addition of an enolsilane to an aldehyde, commonly referred to as the Mukaiyama aldol reaction, is readily promoted by Lewis acids and has been the subject of intense interest in the field of chiral Lewis acid catalysis. Copper-based Lewis acids have been applied to this process in an attempt to generate polyacetate and polypropionate synthons for natural product synthesis. Although the considerable Lewis acidity of many of these complexes is more than sufficient to activate a broad range of aldehydes, high selectivities have been observed predominantly with substrates capable of two-point coordination to the metal. Of these, benzy-loxyacetaldehyde and pyruvate esters have been most successful. 

Scheme 24. Proposed mechanism for the bis(oxazoline)-Cu(II) catalyzed aldol reaction between pyruvate esters and enolsilanes. [Adapted from (235).]...

Evans, D.A. and Tregay, S. W. and Burgey, C.S. and Paras, N.A. and Vojkovsky, T. (2000). C2-Symmetric Copper(ll) Complexes as Chiral Lewis Acids. Enantioselective Glyoxylate-Ene Reaction with Glyoxylate and Pyruvate Esters. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 122, 7936-7943. 

Perhydrofuro[2,3- ]pytai derivatives can be synthesized in one pot via a reaction sequence involving addition and cyclization reactions. The reactants, dihydropyran and pyruvate esters, undergo a reaction which is mediated by Lewis acids such as TiCU, to afford perhydrofuro[2,3-/ ]pyran derivatives in good yields <2003SL1491>. 

The above reactions have been illustrated for 2- and 4-alkylpyridines. They generally fail if no heteroatom is a or 7, as in 3-alkylpyridines and 5-alkylpyrimidines. a- and [3-Alkyl groups in pyridine A-oxides are somewhat more reactive than those on the corresponding pyridines. In addition to the reactions already mentioned, 2-picoline 1-oxide undergoes Claisen condensation with ethyl oxalate to yield the pyruvic ester (630) (for the conversion of alkyl substituents in A-oxides into CH,OAc groups see Section 3.2.3.12.5.iv). 

Amino groups in compounds of type (23, Z=NH) are frequently derived from nitro groups. In the Reissert indole synthesis, o-nitrotoluene undergoes Claisen condensation with oxalic ester to yield the pyruvic ester (24). When this is reduced with Zn-AcOH the corresponding amino derivative spontaneously cyclizes to the 2-ethoxycarbonylindole (25) (63OS(43)40). 

Selective oxidation of nucleosides by photolysis of pyruvic esters has also been reported.43,44 This photochemical procedure45,46 is particularly useful for the oxidation of fragile molecules, and has been used to prepare protected 3 -ketothymidines. ... 

In addition to preparation of arylhydrazones from the carbonyl compounds and an arylhydrazine, the Japp-Klingemann reaction of arenediazonium ions with enolates and enamines is an important method for preparation of arylhydrazones. This method provides a route to monoarylhydrazones of a-dicarbonyl compounds from /3-keto acids and to the hydrazones of pyruvate esters from / -keto esters. Enamines also give rise to monoarylhydrazones of a-diketones. Indolization of these arylhydrazones provides the expected 2-acyI-or 2-alkoxycarbonyl-indoles (equations 95-97). 

Timmen and Dimick (1972) characterized the major hydroxy compounds in milk lipids by first isolating the compounds as their pyruvic ester-2,.6-dinitrophenylhydrazones. Concentrations as weight percent of the compounds from bovine herd milk lipids were 1,2-DGs 1.43, hydroxyacylglycerols 0.61, and sterols 0.35. Lipolysis tripled the DG content. The usual milk fatty acids were observed, except that the DGs lacked 4 0 and 6 00, again indicating that these lipids were in part intermediates in milk lipid biosynthesis. With the large hydrazone group... 

Controversy remains in the determination of substrate tolerance for KdgA/KhgA aldolases from different sources. Early assay studies with KhgA prepared [127-129] from rat liver concluded that the catalyst had an unusually wide ranging tolerance for nucleophilic components, including a number of 3-substituted pyruvate derivatives as well as pyruvaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and pyruvic esters [135], Later, other workers using enzymes from rat or bovine liver and from E. coli reported their inability to reproduce these results but noted a rather limiting specificity [136]. 

The previously described Norrish II reaction is used in the photolysis of pyruvate esters of carbohydrates and nucleosides [90-94]. The presence of different protecting... 

The ketonic group of a-ketonic esters is attacked in preference to the carboxyl group. From pyruvic ester is obtained a-methyl lactic ester ... 

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