Reductive enamine

Two synthetic bridged nitrogen heterocycles are also prepared on a commercial scale. The pentazocine synthesis consists of a reductive alkylation of a pyridinium ring, a remarkable and puzzling addition to the most hindered position, hydrogenation of an enamine, and acid-catalyzed substitution of a phenol derivative. The synthesis is an application of the reactivity rules discussed in the alkaloid section. The same applies for clidinium bromide. 

One route to o-nitrobenzyl ketones is by acylation of carbon nucleophiles by o-nitrophenylacetyl chloride. This reaction has been applied to such nucleophiles as diethyl malonatc[l], methyl acetoacetate[2], Meldrum s acid[3] and enamines[4]. The procedure given below for ethyl indole-2-acetate is a good example of this methodology. Acylation of u-nitrobenzyl anions, as illustrated by the reaction with diethyl oxalate in the classic Reissert procedure for preparing indolc-2-carboxylate esters[5], is another route to o-nitrobenzyl ketones. The o-nitrophenyl enamines generated in the first step of the Leimgruber-Batcho synthesis (see Section 2.1) are also potential substrates for C-acylation[6,7], Deformylation and reduction leads to 2-sub-stituted indoles. 

Acylation of the Leimgruber Batcho enamines with phosgene followed by methanolysis and reductive cyclization generates methyl indole-3-carb-oxylates[8]... 

Reductive Gyclizations. The Batcho-Leimgmber protocol involves condensation of an o-nitrotoluene with a dimethylformamide acetal to form a P-( nitrophenyl)enamine (27). A reducing agent then affects the reductive cycli2ation to an indole. 

There have been a number of refinements to the procedure, both in the enamine formation and in the reduction. Furthermore, the procedure can be adapted to 2-substituted indoles by introducing an acyl substituent on the enamine intermediate. 

Reductive amination of cyclohexanone using primary and secondary aHphatic amines provides A/-alkylated cyclohexylamines. Dehydration to imine for the primary amines, to endocycHc enamine for the secondary amines is usually performed in situ prior to hydrogenation in batch processing. Alternatively, reduction of the /V-a1ky1ani1ines may be performed, as for /V,/V-dimethy1 cyclohexyl amine from /V, /V- di m e th y1 a n i1 i n e [121 -69-7] (12,13). One-step routes from phenol and the alkylamine (14) have also been practiced. 

Aniline (hen enamine) [62-53-3] is the simplest of the primary aromatic amines. It was first produced ia 1826 by dry distillation of indigo. In 1840 the same oily hquid was obtained by heating indigo with potash, and it was given the name aniline. The stmcture of aniline was estabUshed in 1843 with the demonstration that it could be obtained by reduction of nitrobenzene. 

Other methods of generating a-aminoketones in situ are common, if somewhat less general than the methods already described. 2-Nitrovinylpyrrolidine, which is readily available, yields 2,3-bis(3-aminopropyl)pyrazine on reduction and this almost certainly involves ring opening of the intermediate enamine to an a-aminoketone which then dimerizes under the reaction conditions (Scheme 59) (78TL2217). Nitroethylene derivatives have also served as a-aminoketone precursors via ammonolysis of the derived epoxides at elevated temperatures (Scheme 60) (76S53). Condensation of 1,1-disubstituted hydrazine derivatives with a-nitro-/3-ethoxyethylene derivatives has been used in the synthesis of l,4-dialkylamino-l,4-dihydropyrazines (Scheme 61) (77S136). 

Reductive amination ol aldehydes or ketones by cyanoborohydride (or tnacetoxyborohydride) anion Selective reduction of carbonyls to alcohol, oximes to N alkylhydroxylarmnes, enamines to amines... 

A number of alternative multi-step procedures for the synthesis of a-tert-alkyl ketones are known, none of which possess wide generality. A previous synthesis of 2-tert-penty1cyclopentanone involved reaction of N-1-cyclopentenylpyrrol 1 dine with 3-chloro-3-methy1-l-butyne and reduction of the resulting acetylene (overall yield 46 ). However, all other enamines tested afford much lower yields. Cuprate addition to unsaturated ketones may be useful in certain cases. Other indirect methods have been briefly reviewed. ... 

Androst-4-ene-3,l 1,17-trionehas been converted into several 3,17-dienamine derivatives which, on reduction with LiAlH4 followed by removal of the protecting groups, give 11 jS-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-3,17-dione. An unsaturated 3-ketone has also been protected as an enamine in the LiAlH4 reduction of a 21-ester group a further example is the conversion of 7-methylene-5a-an-drostane-3,17-dione into the 3-pyrrolidine enamine followed by reduction of the 17-ketone by Li[OC(CH3)3]3 AlH. ... 

Presumably, the species that undergoes reduction here is a caibinolamine, an iminium ion derived from it, or an enamine. 

Johnson and Whitehead have further shown that the reductive elimination of the pyrrolidine group from the pyrrolidine enamine of 2,4-dimethyl-cyclohexanone (16), which involved treating it with a mixture of lithium aluminum hydride and aluminum chloride (9), gave the trans isomer of 3,5-dimethyl-/l -cyclohexene (17) which on subsequent hydrogenation on a platinum catalyst led to the // onr-3,5-dimethylcyclohexane (18). 

Hunig and Salzwedel (20) report that the acylation of the pyrrolidine enamine of 3-methylcyclohexanone with propionylchloride followed by the hydrolysis and the base cleavage of the resulting dione isomers (71) and (72) and subsequent reduction of the keto groups gave a 3 7 mixture of the carboxylic acids (73 and 74), respectively. Vig et al. (39), however, found o o o o... 

Other secondary amines such as pyrrolidine, di- -butylamine, tetrahydro-quinoline, n-benzylamine, and piperidine were also found to be capable of effecting this reduction. Interestingly, morpholine does not reduce enamines as readily (47) and its acid-catalyzed reaction with norbornanone was reported (45) to give only the corresponding enamine (93), although trace amounts of the reduction product were detected when cyclohexanone was treated with morpholine under these conditions (47a). The yield of morpholine reduction product was increased by using higher temperatures. 

Another interesting fact to be noted is that the bicyclic enamine (87) and its pyrrolidine analogue failed to undergo reduction with 98% formic acid, whereas the pyrrolidine enamine of 2-bicyclo[2.2.1]hepten-5-carboxalde-hyde (94), which exists largely in the transoid form (49), was readily reduced to (95). However, the saturated amine-substituted norbornane can be obtained directly from norbornanone under the more vigorous conditions of the Leuckart reaction (49a). 

The preparation of enamines by reduction of aromatic heterocyclic bases and their quaternary salts or of lactams is not the most useful approach (97). The lithium aluminum hydride reduction of N-acyl enamines has been used with both fruitful and unsuccessful results. A series of 3-N-acetyl -d -cholestenes (104) has been prepared by desulfurization of the appropriate thiazolidine (105) (98,99). Lithium aluminum hydride reduction of the... 

An earlier report (126) which assigned the irons configuration to the enamine (175) derived from the cyanamine (176) upon reaction with potassium amide in liquid ammonia has been questioned by Munk and Kim (725). They also have doubts about the structures (177 and 178) proposed for the products obtained by the reduction of acetonitrile with sodium (727). 

The reaction has been applied to more complex enamines 13) and to dienamines 19). The reduction may be rationalized by initial protonation at the enamine carbon and subsequent decarboxylation of formate ion and addition of the hydride ion to the iminium cation. This mechanism has been given support by the reaction of the enamine (205) with deuterated formic acid 143) to give the corresponding amines. The formation of 206 on reaction with DCOOH clearly indicates that protonation at the enamine carbon is the initial step. 

The reduction of the double bond of an enamine is normally carried out either by catalytic hydrogenation (MS) or by reduction with formic acid (see Section V.H) or sodium borohydride 146,147), both of which involve initial protonation to form the iminium ion followed by hydride addition. Lithium aluminum hydride reduces iminium salts (see Chapter 5), but it does not react with free enamines except when unusual enamines are involved 148). 

In most reviews of enamine chemistry the reactions of iminium salts are scattered throughout the review and are consequently not covered in a comprehensive manner. This chapter will be an attempt to look at reactions that, at one stage or another, proceed by nucleophilic addition to the iminium intermediate. The subject of enamines has been reviewed 1-4) and certain aspects of iminium salt chemistry such as reduction of aromatic quaternary salts have been treated in detail (5). Consequently, the reduction of aromatic quaternary salts with complex hydrides will be presented here only briefly. Although the literature (especially 1950-1967) has been checked with care, the author can make no claim to completeness. The... 

The previous sections have dealt with stable C=N-I- functionality in aromatic rings as simple salts. Another class of iminium salt reactions can be found where the iminium salt is only an intermediate. The purpose of this section is to point out these reactions even though they do not show any striking differences in their reactivity from stable iminium salts. Such intermediates arise from a-chloroamines (133-135), isomerization of oxazolidines (136), reduction of a-aminoketones by the Clemmensen method (137-139), reductive alkylation by the Leuckart-Wallach (140-141) or Clarke-Eschweiler reaction (142), mercuric acetate oxidation of amines (46,93), and in reactions such as ketene with enamines (143). 

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