Synthesis of Vitamin A Acetate

The Wittig process for the synthesis of vitamin A acetate is carried out on the industrial scale and produces a mixture of the all-trans and 11-cis isomers. Only the all-trans form is suitable for pharmaceutical or... 

After it had been proved that the Wittig reaction was suitable, in principle, for polyene syntheses, the linking of a C5 building block with a C15 ylide (6) was chosen for the synthesis of vitamin A acetate (9). Suitable C5 building blocks, such as, for example, P-formylcrotyl acetate (8), were, of course, still unknown at that time. 

A question of regiochemistry arises with O-silylated dienolates derived from a, -unsaturated aldehydes, ketones and esters. The silylated dienolates of crotonaldehyde and its 3-methyl derivative (108) react with acetals in Lewis acid catalyzed conditions at the y-position. This high regioselectivity has been used in the synthesis of vitamin A acetate (Scheme 41). ... 

An analogous strategy allows the direct synthesis of vitamin A acetate (W) by employing the Cs-chloroacetate 11 (Scheme 3) [2]. Reaction of the anion of 7 with 11 gives 72, which is converted into 10 upon treatment with base. The acetate thus obtained consists of (all- )-(-80%) and (9Z)-isomers (-20%). The elimination reaction can best be performed by the use of potassium alkoxide in refluxing hydrocarbon solvent. 

Reaction between the lithiate of cyclogeranyl sulphone (25) and the aldehyde ester 43, followed by tetrahydropyranylation of the hydroxy group of the coupling product, furnishes 44. Treatment of 44 with ten equivalents of f-BuOK in refluxing f-BuOH leads to methyl retinoate (19) (all- 13Z= 1 1). The versatility of the double elimination method is highlighted by a novel synthesis of vitamin A acetate (JO) (Scheme 15) [17,18]. 

Following are the final steps in one industrial synthesis of vitamin A acetate. 

Dye-Sensitized Photoisomerization. One technological appHcation of photoisomerization is in the synthesis of vitamin A. In a mixture of vitamin A acetate (all-trans stmcture) and the 11-cis isomer (23), sensitized photoisomerization of the 11-cis to the all-trans molecule occurs using zinc tetraphenylporphyrin, chlorophyU, hematoporphyrin, rose bengal, or erythrosin as sensitizers (73). Another photoisomerization is reported to be responsible for dye laser mode-locking (74). In this example, one metastable isomer of an oxadicarbocyanine dye was formed during flashlamp excitation, and it was the isomer that exhibited mode-locking characteristics. 

Reductive elimination of an allylic diol group. A new synthesis of vitamin A involves reduction of the allylic diol 1, prepared in several steps from JJ-ionone, with a low valent titanium formed from TiCl3 and LiAlH, in the ratio 2 1. Thus, the allylic diol group of 1 [either (E) or (Z)] is reduced to an (E,E)-1,3-diene group to form the silyl ether (2) of vitamin A.1 When the primary hydroxyl group is protected as an acetate, the reduction gives a mixture of (E)- and (Z)-2. 

Two patents by Takahashi et al. reported the synthesis of vitamin A via a Cio dihalogeno derivative [34,35]. In one procedure the halogenodiene was prepared by bromination of 3,7-dimethyl-2,5,7-octatrien-1-yl acetate. Addition of the latter and /BuOK in DMF to the Cio sulfone provided the retinol sulfone (34%). Again, double elimination (MeOK), gave vitamin A acetate, Fig. (13). 

Tanaka et al. reported a synthesis of vitamin A derivatives from C15 phosphonates [85]. Vitamin A acetate was prepared in 92% yield by reaction of the C15 phosphonate with 2-methyl-4-acetoxy-2-butenal, Fig. (47). 

It has been assumed so far that the sensitizer acts by an energy-transfer mechanism, but in some cases other modes of interaction may occur. It is possible that electron transfer takes place to give the radical anion or the radical cation of the alkene, which is the species that subsequently isomerizes. This is likely to be the case in the chlorophyll-sensitized isomerization of vitamin A acetate, which is used commercially to obtain the required all-trans isomer 12.8) from the mixture of Isomers resulting from the synthesis. Unlike triplet-sensitized reactions, electron-transfer isomerizations frequently lead to a predominance of the most thermodynamically stable isomer. 

The EM Modular Reaction System can also be used to perform multi-step syntheses [83], For the production of pharmaceuticals, in this case for the synthesis of vitamin A, an ylid is formed from a phosphonium salt and a base in the first stage at 2 °C. In a second stage, the ylid reacts with an aldehyde at 60 °C in a flow-through capillary reactor. In a third stage the crude product is hydrolyzed at 20 °C in an additional micro mixer to form the target product vitamin A acetate, as illustrated. For the claimed reaction, no further experimental details were given. 

The synthesis of vitamin A was certainly a pioneering work in the industrial application of the Wittig reaction 6). The decisive step in this synthesis performed by the BASF, which had already established a plant for the production of vitamin A in 1971 2S4), is the Wittig olefination of vinyl-P-ionol 503 with y-formylcrotyl acetate 507 to vitamin A acetate 508. The phosphonium salt 505 is obtained by reaction of the alcohol 503 with triphenylphosphine hydrobromide 504 2S5) (Scheme 85). 

The phosphonium salt is more acidic than usual because its conjugate base, the ylide, is stabilized by resonance involving the double bonds. Therefore, methoxide ion, a weaker base than usual, can be used lo form the ylide. Reaction of the ylide with the aldehyde that has its hydroxy group protected as an ester produces vitamin A acetate. The acetate group can readily be removed to complete the synthesis of vitamin A (see Section 10.2). 

Retinoids. A new procedure has been described for the synthesis of vitamin A [retinol (95)] and related compounds via ir-allyl Pd complexes. Thus prenyl acetate (96) with PdCl2 gave the complex (97), the structure of which was... 

In a Glaxo synthesis of vitamin A from cyclohexanone, one step involved dehydration of the alcohol (2), or elimination of acetic acid from the corresponding acetate (4), to produce the eneyne (5). This transformation proved to be surprisingly... 

Typical of the methods available for the preparation of 7t-allylpalladium complexes is the preparation of the crystalline compound 70 by heating prenyl acetate 71 in acetic acid with PdCl2 in the presence of copper(II) chloride, followed by chromatographic purification. Alkylation of 70 with the anion derived from the Ci5-sulphone 72 is then carried out in DMF in the presence of at least four equivalents of triphenylphosphine (two per Pd) and gives the crystalline C2o-sulphone 73 from which vitamin A may be obtained by ethoxide-catalysed elimination of phenylsulphinic acid [40] (Scheme 16). Despite the moderate yield (52%) in the alkylation step and the use of stoichiometric amounts of palladium, this synthesis of vitamin A (7) avoids the lengthy functionalization process that is often necessary with more conventional methods of carbon-carbon bond formation. 

Analogue of the C14-aldehyde synthesis for the preparation of Vitamin A acetate according to Hoffmann-la-Roche. 

Synthesis of vitamin A using aldol reaction of acetal 54 and silyl dienol ether 55. 

Hoffmaim-La Roche has produced -carotene since the 1950s and has rehed on core knowledge of vitamin A chemistry for the synthesis of this target. In this approach, a five-carbon homologation of vitamin A aldehyde (19) is accompHshed by successive acetalizations and enol ether condensations to prepare the aldehyde (46). Metal acetyUde coupling with two molecules of aldehyde (46) completes constmction of the C q carbon framework. Selective reduction of the internal triple bond of (47) is followed by dehydration and thermal isomerization to yield -carotene (21) (Fig. 10). 

Trost and coworkers have devised a stereocontrolled 1,3-diene synthesis employing a palladium-catalysed decarboxylative elimination procedure from allylic acetates carrying carboxylic acid functionality ji- to the acetate group (equation 18)48. This decarboxylative elimination strategy has been applied to the synthesis of an insect pheromone, codlemone48a and the ethyl ester of vitamin A carboxylic acid (Table 5)48b. 

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