Terpenes Naturally Occurring Alkenes

It has been known for centuries that codistillation of many plant materials with steam produces a fragrant mixture of liquids called essential oils. For hundreds of years, such plant extracts have been used as medicines, spices, and perfumes. The investigation of essential oils also played a major role in the emergence of organic chemistry as a science during the 19th century. 

Chemically, plant essential oils consist largely of mixtures of compounds known as terpenoids—small organic molecules with an immense diversity of structure. More than 35,000 different terpenoids are known. Some are open-chain molecules, and others contain rings some are hydrocarbons, and others contain oxygen. Hydrocarbon terpenoids, in particular, are known as terpenes, and all contain double bonds. For example  

The wonderful fragrance of leaves from the California bay laurel is due primarily to myrcene, a simple terpene. 

Regardless of their apparent structural differences, all terpenoids are related. According to a formalism called the isoprene rule, they can be thought of as arising from head-to-tail joining of 5-carbon isoprene units (2-methyl-buta-1,3-diene). Carbon 1 is the head of the isoprene unit, and carbon 4 is the tail. For example, myrcene contains two isoprene units joined head to tail, forming an 8-carbon chain with two 1-carbon branches. a-Pinene similarly contains two isoprene units assembled into a more complex cyclic structure, and humulene contains three isoprene units. See if you can identify the isoprene units in a-pinene and humulene. 

Terpenes (and terpenoids) are further classified according to the number of 5-carbon units they contain. Thus, monoterpenes are 10-carbon substances derived from two isoprene units, sesquiterpenes are 15-carbon molecules derived from three isoprene units, diterpenes are 20-carbon substances derived from four isoprene units, and so on. Monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes are found primarily in plants, but the higher terpenoids occur in both plants and animals, and many have important biological roles. The triterpenoid lanosterol, for example, is the precursor from which all steroid hormones are made. 

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In the Chapter 6 Focus On, "Terpenes Naturally Occurring Alkenes," we looked briefly at terpenoids, a vast and diverse group of lipids found in all living organisms. Despite their apparent structural differences, all terpenoids are related. All contain a multiple of five carbons and are derived biosynthetically from the five-carbon precursor isopentenyl diphosphate (Figure 27.6). Note that formally, a... 

A Deeper Look— Terpenes Naturally Occurring Alkenes... 

A Deeper Look Terpenes Naturally Occurring Alkenes 299... 

Among chiral dialkylboranes, diisopinocampheylborane (8) is the most important and best-studied asymmetric hydroborating agent. It is obtained in both enantiomeric forms from naturally occurring a-pinene. Several procedures for its synthesis have been developed (151—153). The most convenient one, providing product of essentially 100% ee, involves the hydroboration of a-pinene with borane—dimethyl sulfide in tetrahydrofuran (154). Other chiral dialkylboranes derived from terpenes, eg, 2- and 3-carene (155), limonene (156), and longifolene (157,158), can also be prepared by controlled hydroboration. A more tedious approach to chiral dialkylboranes is based on the resolution of racemates. /n j -2,5-Dimethylborolane, which shows excellent enantioselectivity in the hydroboration of all principal classes of prochiral alkenes except 1,1-disubstituted terminal double bonds, has been... 

Aerobic epoxidation of different alkenes, including a number of natural terpenes, efficiently occurs under mild reaction conditions in the presence of isobutyraldehyde as a reductant and MNaY and MNaZSM-5 type zeolites (M=Co(II), Cu(II), Ni(II) and Fe(III)) as catalysts. Yields of the epoxidation products vary from 80 up to 99% depending on the olefin and catalyst. The reaction proceeds via chain radical mechanism, acylperoxy radicals being the main epoxidizing species. 

Now for some real examples. Most ene reactions with simple alkenes are with maleic anhydride. Other dienophiles—or enophiles as we should call them in this context—do not work very well. However, with one particular alkene, the natural terpene P-pinene from pine trees, reaction does occur with enophiles such as acrylates. 

Catalytic cycloadditions of carbenes to alkenes is a straightforward method for synthesizing cyclopropanes [40]. In fact, cyclopropanes are present in a variety of natural products [41-43]. For example, they occur in some unusual amino acids, in natural phytotoxins such as coronatine, as well as in marine terpenes [44], sesquiterpenes [45], cyclosteroids [46-47] (as part of the A-cycle) or in the side chain of steroids [48]. 

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