Vinylindoles, Diels-Alder cyclizations

Minfiensine, a secoiridoid indole alkaloid, was isolated from the African plant Strychnos minfiensis by Massiot and co-workers in 1989. The unique structure feature of the 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-9a,4a-(iminoethano)-9//-carbazole has received much attention for the synthetic efforts and has culminated in several elegant total syntheses. For example. Overman et al. reported on the first and second total synthesis of (-l-)-minfiensine. " In addition, Qin et al. revealed a synthesis of ( )-minfiensine in 2008. Recently, MacMillan and co-workers reported on a nine-step enantiose-lective total synthesis of (-l-)-minfiensine via the key step reaction of organocatalytic Diels-Alder cyclization and amine heterocyclization cascade (Scheme 21.32). For the key step reaction in their approach, reaction of 2-vinylindole 139 and 3 equivalents of propynal in the presence of secondary amine catalyst 140 followed by the addition of NaBH4, stereoselective afforded the tricyclic alcohol 142 via a iminium activated endo-selectiye Diels-Alder cycloaddition and a 5-exo amine heterocy cliz ation. 

Diels-Alder reaction of 3-vinylindole 131 with aryne in the presence of air gives, besides primary Diels-Alder product 132, the methyl 12-methyl-12H-[3]-benzoxepino[l,2-l7]indole-5-carboxylate 135. This can be explained by the formation of 1,2-dioxetane 133, its cyclo reversion and final intramolecular cyclization of dienol 134 or its tautomers (Scheme 26 (1996JCS(P1)1767)). 

Bailly and coworkers were interested in synthesizing structures containing a carbazole nucleus with a fused imide ring and examining their effects on DNA, human topoisomerases, and P388 leukemia cells [104]. Thus, the Diels-Alder reaction between the 3-vinylindole species 292 and DMAD (221) was used as the key synthetic step to provide the cycloaddition product 293. This cycloadduct was in turn oxidized to the carbazole moiety 294, bearing a diester functionality that could then be cyclized with an appropriate amine 295 to produce the A-substituted imide ring in the final product 296 (Scheme 62). 

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