STORK Cyanohydrin alkylation

Stork first demonstrated the utility of protected cyanohydrins as acyl anion equivalents in 1971 [2]. The acetal-protected cyanohydrin 8 was transformed into the corresponding anion with LDA in THF/HMPA, which was then alkylated with a range of alkyl halides, including secondary bromides (Scheme 2). A mild acidic hydrolysis yielded a cyanohydrin, which provided the ketone after treatment with base. The Stork cyanohydrin alkylation and its variants have become important methods in natural product synthesis [3,4]. 

Stork s elegant use of a protected cyanohydrin function in the synthesis of PGF2a (2) is also noteworthy. The electron-withdrawing cyano substituent in intermediate 21 (Scheme 7) confers nucleophilic potential to C-9 and permits the construction of the saturated cyclopentane nucleus of PGF2a (2) through intramolecular alkylation. In addition, the C-9 cyanohydrin function contained within 40 is stable under the acidic conditions used to accomplish the conversion of 39 to 40 (see Scheme 7), and it thus provides suitable protection for an otherwise labile /J-hydroxy ketone. 

Synthesis of aldehydes and ketones. This substance can function as a protected cyanohydrin of formaldehyde in an extension of Stork and Maldonado s synthesis of ketones from aldehydes, RCHO —> RCOR, by way of cyanohydrins (4, 300-301). Thus the anion of 1, generated with LDA, does not undergo self-condensation, but can be alkylated the product on hydrolysis gives the homologous aldehyde of the alkyl halide. Thus the reagent serves as the latent anion of formaldehyde, HC=0. An example is shown in equation (I). 

---