Trisubstituted pyrrole moiety

The formal total synthesis of roseophilin was accomplished by B.M. Trost et al. who used the Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis to install the trisubstituted pyrrole moiety.The 1,4-diketone substrate was reacted with various primary amines to obtain A/-substituted pyrroles. The best yield was obtained when benzylamine was used as the amine component, but the A/-deprotection of the product proved to be problematic. This forced the researchers to prepare the otherwise unstable A/-unprotected pyrrole under carefully controlled conditions and protect it immediately with SEM-chloride. 

The absolute stereochemistry of natural roseophilin was determined by means of asymmetric total synthesis by M.A. Tius and co-workers. The trisubstituted pyrrole moiety of the natural product was installed using the Paai-Knorr pyrrole synthesis starting from a macrocyclic 1,4-diketone. This diketone was prepared by reacting an exocyclic a, 3-unsaturated ketone with excess 6-heptenal in the presence of 3-benzyl-5-(hydroxyethyl)-4-methylthiazolium chloride as the catalyst. The major product was the trans diastereomer and the macrocyclization was achieved via aikene metathesis. It is worth noting that when the aldehyde was tethered to the cyclopentenone, all attempts to close the macrocycle in an intramolecular Stetter reaction failed. 

The 2-(benzotriazol-l-yl)methyl side chains of pyrrole 1232 or its 2-methyl analogs were elaborated by nucleophilic substitution and also by initial alkylation followed by replacement or elimination of the benzotriazolyl moiety to afford a variety of 1,2,4-trisubstituted (Scheme 237) and 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted pyrroles <1989CL1107, 1996JOC1624>. 

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