Quinine catalysis

The naturally occurring (-i-)-calanolide A 21, R = n-Pr, and (H-)-inophyllum B 21, R = Ph, are of interest in that the molecules possess chromene, coumarin and chromanol systems. Total syntheses of them start from a coumarin and generate the chromanone unit through an intramolecular Michael addition which under (-)-quinine catalysis affords cis and trans benzodipyrans with 97% and 52% ee, respectively. The chromene moiety is constructed using the phenylboronic acid assisted reaction with senecioaldehyde. Reduction of the chromanone to the chromanol completes the sequence <04JOC2760>. 

The publication (70) in 1976 of the preparation of optically active epoxyketones via asymmetric catalysis marked the start of an increasingly popular field of study. When chalcones were treated with 30% hydrogen peroxide under (basic) phase-transfer conditions and the benzylammonium salt of quinine was used as the phase-transfer catalyst, the epoxyketones were produced with e.e. s up to 55%. Up to that time no optically active chalcone epoxides were known, while the importance of epoxides (arene oxides) in metabolic processes had just been discovered (71). The nonasymmetric reaction itself, known as the Weitz-Scheffer reaction under homogeneous conditions, has been reviewed by Berti (70). 

One aspect of asymmetric catalysis has become clear. Every part of the molecule seems to fulfill a role in the process, just as in enzymic catalysis. Whereas many of us have been used to simple acid or base catalysis, in which protonation or proton abstraction is the key step, bifunctional or even multifunctional catalysis is the rule in the processes discussed in this chapter.Thus it is not only the increase in nucleophilicity of the nucleophile by the quinine base (see Figures 6 and 19), nor only the increase in the electrophilicity of the electrophile caused by hydrogen bonding to the secondary alcohol function of the quinine, but also the many steric (i.e., van der Waals) interactions between the quinoline and quinuclidine portions of the molecule that exert the overall powerful guidance needed to effect high stereoselection. Important charge-transfer interactions between the quinoline portion of the molecule and aromatic substrates cannot be excluded. 

An interesting bifunctional system with a combination of In(OTf)3 and benzoyl-quinine 65 was developed in p-lactam formation reaction from ketenes and an imino ester by Lectka [Eq. (13.40)]. High diastrereo- and enantioselectivity as well as high chemical yield were produced with the bifunctional catalysis. In the absence of the Lewis acid, polymerization of the acid chloride and imino ester occurred, and product yield was moderate. It was proposed that quinine activates ketenes (generated from acyl chloride in the presence of proton sponge) as a nucleophile to generate an enolate, while indium activates the imino ester, which favors the desired addition reaction (66) ... 

The majority of the Michael-type conjugate additions are promoted by amine-based catalysts and proceed via an enamine or iminium intermediate species. Subsequently, Jprgensen et al. [43] explored the aza-Michael addition of hydra-zones to cyclic enones catalyzed by Cinchona alkaloids. Although the reaction proceeds under pyrrolidine catalysis via iminium activation of the enone, and also with NEtj via hydrazone activation, both methods do not confer enantioselectivity to the reaction. Under a Cinchona alkaloid screen, quinine 3 was identified as an effective aza-Michael catalyst to give 92% yield and 1 3.5 er (Scheme 4). 

A major development in this area was brought about by the invention of crosslinked polystyrene-supported 9-(/)-chlorobenzoy 1 )quinine ligands 17 [54] and 18 [55], The salient feature of this invention is the connection of the quinine unit to the polymer backbone through a sterically undemanding spacer. Thereby, the quinuclidine, which in catalysis coordinates to osmium, is free of steric interaction with the polymeric side chain. Dihydroxylation of trans-stilbene in the presence of 17 and NMO as co-oxidant gave stilbene diol with 87% ee. However, changing the terminal oxidant to K3[Fe(CN6)] led to full inhibition of the reaction. This result was explained by a possible collapse of the polymer in the required protic solvent, which prevented substrate penetration. 

Phase-transfer catalysis has been widely been used for asymmetric epoxidation of enones [100]. This catalytic reaction was pioneered by Wynberg et al., who used mainly the chiral and pseudo-enantiomeric quaternary ammonium salts 66 and 67, derived from the cinchona alkaloids quinine and quinidine, respectively [101-105],... 

BQC is derived from quinine, which is a member of the cinchona family of alkaloids. Ammonium salts derived from quinidine, a diastereomer of (1) at the hydroxyl substituent, have been used less frequently in catalysis than BQC. Quini-dinium salts often give rise to products with enantioselectivity opposite to that from (1). Other related compounds, such as those derived from cinchonine and cinchonidine (which lack the methoxy substituent on the quinoline nucleus), have found application in organic synthesis. The cinchona alkaloids, as well as salt derivatives in which the benzyl group bears various substituents, have also been studied. Results from polymer-bound catalysts have not been promising. ... 

As mentioned in the previous section, nowadays, readily available and inexpensive cinchona alkaloids with pseudoenantiomeric forms, such as quinine and quinidine or cinchonine and cinchonidine, are among the most privileged chirality inducers in the area of asymmetric catalysis. The key feature responsible for their successful utility in catalysis is that they possess diverse chiral skeletons and are easily tunable for diverse types of reactions (Figure 1.2). The presence of the 1,2-aminoalcohol subunit containing the highly basic and bulky quinuclidine, which complements the proximal Lewis acidic hydroxyl function, is primarily responsible for their catalytic activity. 

In pyridine solutions, the statistically corrected relative catalytic coefficients of tertiary amines for 1-methylindene isomerization decreased in the order24 4. quinuclidine, 80 DABCO, 10 triethylamine, 1. The smaller catalytic effectiveness of DABCO than quinuclidine is attributable to its weaker basicity is —30eu for each of these bicyclic bases. On the other hand, triethylamine is about as basic as quinuclidine, but must lose considerable rotational freedom in the rate-limiting proton transfer. This is reflected in the more negative entropy of activation (—39eu) for the triethyl-amine-catalyzed reaction. In pyridine solution, there is a close correlation between pa s of the catalyzing base and A// for 1-methylindene isomerization. Asymmetric catalysis was demonstrated in the quinine-catalyzed isomerization of optically active 1-methylindene in pyridine at 25°C the dextrorotatory indene isomerized nearly twice as fast as its enantiometer247. 

Recently, electron-transfer catalysis by viologen compounds has attracted much attention. The compounds function as mediators of electron transfer and have been applied in the reduction of aldehydes, ketones, quinines, azobenzene, acrylonitrile, nitroalkenes, etc., with zinc or sodium dithionite in a monophase or a two-liquid phase system [13]. Noguchi et al. [13] found that a redox-active macrocyclic ionene oligomer, cyclobis(paraquat-/ -phenylene), acted as an electron phase-transfer catalyst for the reduction of quinines, as compared with acyclic benzyl viologen. The enhanced activity of this compound is due to the inclusion of the substrate into the catalyst cavity. 

The asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral ketones is often an important step in the industrial synthesis of fine and pharmaceutical products. Several noble metal nanoparticles have been investigated for asymmetric catalysis of prochiral substrates but platinum colloids have been the most widely studied and relevant enantiomeric excesses have been reported (>95%). Nevertheless, the enantioselec-tive hydrogenation of ethyl pyruvate catalyzed by PVP-stabilized rhodium nanocluster modified by cinchonidine and quinine was reported by Li and coworkers (Scheme 11.7) [68]. 

Asymmetric cycloaddition of ketene to chloral catalyzed by quinidine gives an (R)-product which on hydrolysis undergoes inversion of the absolute configuration to (S)-malic acid, and vice versa for catalysis by quinine. This reaction allows convenient access to either enantiomer of malic acid (Kilenyi and Aitken, 1992). 

A bifunctional iminiumyhydrogen-bonding catalysis has been very recently employed for the first enantioselective organocatalytic conjugate addition of a phosphorous nucleophile (diarylphosphane oxides) to a,ji-unsaturated ketones [370]. The process, which allows efficient additions to cyclic and linear enones as well as the generation of quaternary stereocenters, is catalyzed by quinine-derived thiourea... 

Regarding the hydroxylation of nitroolefins, the reaction is performed under hydrogen-bonding catalysis using quinine-derived thiourea 170 (5 mol%), ethyl glyoxylate oxime as nucleophile in toluene at -24°C [374], This process, which constitutes a valid alternative to the Henry reaction, yields the corresponding hydroxylated nitrocompounds in good yields (63-83%) and enantioselectivities (48-93% ee) from ahphatic electrophiles (styrene derivatives are prone to retio-Michael addition) and has been successfully employed in the synthesis of optically active P-amino alcohols (Scheme 2.132) [375]. 

The Plaquevent group achieved a new and efficient method for the approach to both enantiomers of methyl dihydrojasmonate 47 by asymmetric Michael addition under solid-liquid phase-transfer catalysis. The main advantages of their procedure are the solvent-free system and the creation of two contiguous stereogenic centres in one step. The authors proposed a plausible mechanism with a transition state composed of substrate 45 and catalyst, quinine-, or quinidine-derived PTC catalyst (48a, 49a), in which hydrogen bonding ensures the proximity of the reactive centres and significantly stabilises the transition state (Scheme 16.14). ... 

Most reports on organocatalytic sulfa-Michael reactions are based on Br0nsted base catalysis, in order to activate pro-nucleophiles containing a S H or a Se—H bond. The early works, appeared in the lates 1970s, featured natural cinchona alkaloids 1-4 as basic catalysts (Figure 14.1). In their seminal works, Wynberg and co-workers employed less than 1 mol% of quinine 1 as chiral catalyst for the conjugated addition of arenethiols to 2-cyclohexen-l-ones. The enantiocontrol was unsatisfactory with benzyhnercaptan [6]. The quasi-enantiomeric catalyst quinidine 2 furnished the... 

In a similar manner, conjugate addition of azlactones possessing isopropyl or isobutyl groups at the C4-position to a series of acyl phosphonates proceeded with y-selectivity and high stereoselectivity under the catalysis of quinine-derived thiourea 19c. The phosphonate moiety of the resulting adducts was readily replaced with various heteronucleophiles such as alcohols and amines in situ under the influence of l,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) (Scheme 17) [33]. The synthetic utility of azlactones as an acyl anion equivalent in this y-selective addition... 

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