Organocatalytic Carbocyclic Construction: The You Synthesis of (–)-Mesembrine

Author(s):  
Douglass F. Taber

Frank Glorius of the Universität Münster devised (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 12626) a catalyst for the enantioselective acylation of a cyclopropene 1 to the ketone 3. Geum-Sook Hwang of Chungnam National University and Do Hyun Ryu of Sungkyunkwan University effected (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 20708) the enantioselective addition of the diazo ester 5 to an α,β-unsaturated aldehyde 4 to give the cyclopropane 6. We showed (J. Org. Chem. 2011, 76, 7614) that face-selective allylation of an α-iodo enone 7 followed by Suzuki coupling and oxy-Cope rearrangement delivered the cyclopentanone 9. Karl Anker Jørgensen of Aarhus University combined (Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 4790) two organocatalysts to effect the addition of 11 to an α,β-unsaturated aldehyde 10, leading to the cyclopentenone 12. Tomislav Rovis of Colorado State University also used (Chem. Sci. 2011, 2, 1835) two organocatalysts to condense 13 with 14 to give the cyclopentanone 15. Gregory C. Fu, now at CalTech, found (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 12293) that both enantiomers of the racemic allene 16 combined with 17 to give the cyclopentene 18 in high ee. Piotr Kwiatkowski of the University of Warsaw found (Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 3624) that under elevated pressure (8–10 kbar), enantioselective conjugate addition of nitromethane proceeded well even with a β-substituted cyclohexenone 19. Marco Bella of the Università di Roma observed (Adv. Synth. Catal. 2011, 353, 2648) remarkable diastereoselectivity in the addition of the aldehyde 22 to an activated acceptor 21. Following the procedure of List, Jiong Yang of Texas A&M University cyclized (Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 5696) 24 to 25 in high ee. Bor-Cherng Hong of the National Chung Cheng University described (Synthesis 2011, 1887) the double Michael combination of 26 with 27 to give 28 in high ee. Observing a secondary 13C isotope effect only at the β-carbon of 30, Li Deng of Brandeis University concluded (Chem. Sci. 2011, 2, 1940) that the addition to 29 was stepwise, not concerted. In contrast, the cyclization of 32 to 33 reported (Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 3932) by Tadeusz F. Molinski of the University of California San Diego likely was concerted.

Author(s):  
Douglass F. Taber

Martin G. Banwell of the Australian National University prepared (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 1934) the enantiomerically pure diol 1 by fermentation of the aromatic precursor. Diels-Alder addition of cyclopentenone 2 proceeded well at elevated pressure to give 3, the precursor to (+)-armillarivin 4. Karl Gademann of the University of Basel found (Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 2589) that the Diels-Alder addition of 6 to 5 proceeded best without solvent and with Cu catalysis to give 7. Reduction under free radical conditions led to gelsemiol 8. Chun-Chen Liao of the National TsingHua University carried out (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 1584) the diastereoselective addition of 10 to 9. A later oxy-Cope rearrangement established the octalin skeleton of (+)-frullanolide 12. D. Srinivasa Reddy of CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory devised (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 1894) a strategy for the construction of the angularly substituted cis-fused aldehyde 15 based on Diels-Alder cycloaddition of 14 to the diene 13. Further transformation led to racemic peribysin-E 16. An effective enantioselective catalyst for dienophiles such as 14 has not yet been developed. Hiromi Uchiro of the Tokyo University of Science prepared (Tetrahedron Lett. 2012, 53, 5167) the bicyclic core of myceliothermophin A 19 by BF3•Et2O-promoted cyclization of the tetraene 17. The single ternary center of 17 mediated the formation of the three new stereogenic centers of 18, including the angular substitution. En route to caribenol A 22, Chuang-Chuang Li and Zhen Yang of the Peking University Shenzen Graduate School assembled (J. Org. Chem. 2013, 78, 5492) the triene 20 from two enantiomerically pure precursors. Inclusion of the radical inhibitor BHT sufficed to suppress competing polymerization, allowing clean cyclization to 21. Methylene blue has also been used (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1980, 102, 5088) for this purpose.


Author(s):  
Tristan H. Lambert

The enantioselective bromocyclization of dicarbonyl 1 to form dihydrofuran 3 using thiocarbamate catalyst 2 was developed (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 8597) by Ying-Yeung Yeung at the National University of Singapore. Access to dihydrofuran 5 from the cyclic boronic acid 4 and salicylaldehyde via a morpholine-mediated Petasis borono-Mannich reaction was reported (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 5944) by Xian-Jin Yang at East China University of Science and Technology and Jun Yang at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry. Chiral phosphoric acid 7 was shown (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 13593) by Jianwei Sun at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to catalyze the enantioselective acetalization of diol 6 to form tetrahydrofuran 8 with high stereoselectivity. Jan Deska at the University of Cologne reported (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 5998) the conversion of glutarate ether 9 to enantiopure tetrahy­drofuranone 10 by way of an enzymatic desymmetrization/oxonium ylide rearrange­ment sequence. Perali Ramu Sridhar at the University of Hyderabad demonstrated (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 4474) the ring-contraction of spirocyclopropane tetrahydropyran 11 to produce tetrahydrofuran 12. Michael A. Kerr at the University of Western Ontario reported (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 4838) that cyclopropane hemimalonate 13 underwent conver­sion to vinylbutanolide 14 in the presence of LiCl and Me₃N•HCl under microwave irradiation. Eric M. Ferreira at Colorado State University developed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 17266) the platinum-catalyzed bisheterocyclization of alkyne diol 15 to fur­nish the bisheterocycle 16. Chiral sulfur ylides such as 17, which can be synthesized easily and cheaply, were shown (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 11951) by Eoghan M. McGarrigle at the University of Bristol and University College Dublin and Varinder K. Aggarwal at the University of Bristol to stereoselectively epoxidize a variety of alde­hydes, as exemplified by 18. The amine 20-catalyzed tandem heteroconjugate addition/Michael reaction of quinol 19 and cinnamaldehyde to produce bicycle 21 with very high ee was reported (Chem. Sci. 2013, 4, 2828) by Jeffrey S. Johnson at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Quinol ether 22 underwent facile photorearrangement–cycloaddition to 23 under irradiation, as reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 17978) by John A. Porco, Jr. at Boston University and Corey R. J. Stephenson, now at the University of Michigan.


Author(s):  
Douglass F. Taber

John F. Hartwig of the University of California, Berkeley effected (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 3375) selective borylation of the cyclopropane 1 to give 2. It would be particularly useful if this borylation could be made enantioselective. Eric M. Ferreira of Colorado State University showed (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 1772) that the enantomeric excess of 3 was transferred to the highly substituted cyclopropane 4. Antonio M. Echavarren of ICIQ Tarragona demonstrated (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 1576) that Au-mediated cyclobutene construction could be used to form the medium ring of 6. Joseph M. Fox of the University of Delaware developed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 9283) what promises to be a general enantioselective route to cyclobutanes such as 8 by way of the intermediate bicyclobutane (not illustrated). Huw M.L. Davies of Emory University reported (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 310) a preliminary investigation in this same direction. Masahisa Nakada of Waseda University prepared (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 1004) the cyclopentane 10 by enantioselective cyclization of 9 followed by reductive opening. Young-Ger Suh of Seoul National University cyclized (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 531) the lactone 11 to the cyclopentane 12. Xavier Ariza and Jaume Farràs of the Universitat de Barcelona optimized (J. Org. Chem. 2013, 78, 5482) the Ti-mediated reductive cyclization of 13 to 14. The hydrogenation catalyst reduced the intermediate Ti–C bond without affecting the alkene. Erick M. Carreira of ETH Zürich observed (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 5382) that a sterically demanding Rh catalyst mediated the highly diastereoselective cyclization of 15 to 16. The ketone 16 was the key intermediate in a synthesis of the epoxyisoprostanes. Jianrong (Steve) Zhou of Nanyang Technological University used (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 4906) a Pd catalyst to effect the coupling of 17 with the prochiral 18. Geum-Sook Hwang and Do Hyun Ryu of Sungkyunkwan University devised (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 7126) a boron catalyst to effect the addition of the diazo ester 21 to 20. They showed that the sidechain stereocenter was effective in directing the subsequent hydrogenation of 22.


Author(s):  
Douglass F. Taber

Theodore A. Betley of Harvard University devised (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 4917) an iron catalyst for inserting the nitrene from 2 into the C–H of 1 to give 3. Bernhard Breit of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies uncovered (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 2386) a Rh catalyst that effected the intriguing hydration of a terminal alkyne 4 to the allylic ester 5. Yian Shi of Colorado State University specifically oxidized (Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 1548) one of the two allylic sites of 6 to give 7. Kálmán J. Szabó of Stockholm University optimized (J. Org. Chem. 2011, 76, 1503) the allylic oxidation of 9 to 10, using the inexpensive sodium perborate. Masayuki Inoue of the University of Tokyo specifically carbamoylated (Tetrahedron Lett. 2011, 52, 2885) the acetonide 12 to give 14. Stephen Caddick of University College London added (Tetrahedron Lett. 2011, 52, 1067) the formyl radical from 15 to 16 to give 17. Ilhyong Ryu of Osaka Prefecture University and Maurizio Fagnoni of the University of Pavia employed (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 1869) a related strategy to effect the net transformation of 18 to 20. There are many examples of the oxidation of ethers and amines to reactive intermediates that can go on to carbon–carbon bond formation. Ram A. Vishwakarma of the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine observed (Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 5852) that with an iron catalyst, the aryl Grignard 22 smoothly coupled with THF 21 to give 23. Gong Chen of Pennsylvania State University effected (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 5192) specific remote C–H arylation of 24, leading to 26. Takahiko Akiyama of Gakushuin University established (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 2424) conditions for intramolecular hydride abstraction, effecting the conversion of 27 to 28. C–H functionalization in nature is often mediated by cytochrome P450 oxidation. Zhi Li of the National University of Singapore showed (Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 3284) that a particular cytochrome P450 selectively oxidized 29 to the alcohol 30, leaving the chemically more reactive benzylic position intact.


Synlett ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (02) ◽  
pp. 140-141
Author(s):  
Louis-Charles Campeau ◽  
Tomislav Rovis

obtained his PhD degree in 2008 with the late Professor Keith Fagnou at the University of Ottawa in Canada as an NSERC Doctoral Fellow. He then joined Merck Research Laboratories at Merck-Frosst in Montreal in 2007, making key contributions to the discovery of Doravirine (MK-1439) for which he received a Merck Special Achievement Award. In 2010, he moved from Quebec to New Jersey, where he has served in roles of increasing responsibility with Merck ever since. L.-C. is currently Executive Director and the Head of Process Chemistry and Discovery Process Chemistry organizations, leading a team of smart creative scientists developing innovative chemistry solutions in support of all discovery, pre-clinical and clinical active pharmaceutical ingredient deliveries for the entire Merck portfolio for small-molecule therapeutics. Over his tenure at Merck, L.-C. and his team have made important contributions to >40 clinical candidates and 4 commercial products to date. Tom Rovis was born in Zagreb in former Yugoslavia but was largely raised in southern Ontario, Canada. He earned his PhD degree at the University of Toronto (Canada) in 1998 under the direction of Professor Mark Lautens. From 1998–2000, he was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University (USA) with Professor David A. Evans. In 2000, he began his independent career at Colorado State University and was promoted in 2005 to Associate Professor and in 2008 to Professor. His group’s accomplishments have been recognized by a number of awards including an Arthur C. Cope Scholar, an NSF CAREER Award, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a ­Katritzky Young Investigator in Heterocyclic Chemistry. In 2016, he moved to Columbia University where he is currently the Samuel Latham Mitchill Professor of Chemistry.


Author(s):  
Kaveri Subrahmanyam ◽  
Adriana Manago

The Children’s Digital Media Center @ Los Angeles studies young people’s interactions with digital media – with a focus on the implications of these interactions for their offline lives and long-term development. Founded by Professor Patricia Greenfield, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA, the Center is a collaborative effort of researchers at the UCLA and the California State University, Los Angeles, USA. CDMC@LA researchers have been at the forefront of research on children’s and adolescents’ use of media ranging from early media forms such as television and video games to more recent ones including various applications on the Internet such as chat rooms, social networking sites, and YouTube. This entry presents an overview of the Center – its history, researchers and collaborators, research focus, and major contributions.


Author(s):  
Douglass Taber

Since five-membered ring ethers often do not show good selectivity on equilibration, single diastereomers are best formed under kinetic control. Aaron Aponick of the University of Florida demonstrated (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 669) that under gold catalysis, the allylic alcohol 1 cyclized to 2 with remarkable diastereocontrol. Six-membered rings also formed with high cis stereocontrol. Ian Cumpstey of Stockholm University showed (Chem. Commun. 2008, 1246) that with protic acid, allylic acetates such as 3 cyclized with clean inversion at the allylic center, and concomitant debenzylation. J. Stephen Clark of the University of Glasgow found (J. Org. Chem. 2008, 73, 1040) that Rh catalyzed cyclization of 5 proceeded with high selectivity for insertion into Ha, leading to the alcohol 6. Saumen Hajra of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur took advantage (J. Org. Chem. 2008, 73, 3935) of the reactivity of the aldehyde of 7, effecting selective addition of 7 to 8, to deliver, after reduction, the lactone 9. Tomislav Rovis of Colorado State University observed (J. Org. Chem. 2008, 73, 612) that 10 could be cyclized selectively to either 11 or 12. Nadège Lubin-Germain, Jacques Uziel and Jacques Augé of the University of Cergy- Pontoise devised (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 725) conditions for the indium-mediated coupling of glycosyl fluorides such as 13 with iodoalkynes such as 14 to give the axial C-glycoside 15. Katsukiyo Miura and Akira Hosomi of the University of Tsukuba employed (Chemistry Lett. 2008, 37, 270) Pt catalysis to effect in situ equilibration of the alkene 16 to the more stable regioisomer. Subsequent condensation with the aldehyde 17 led via Prins cyclization to the ether 18. Paul E. Floreancig of the University of Pittsburgh showed (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 4184) that Prins cyclization could be also be initiated by oxidation of the benzyl ether 19 to the corresponding carbocation. Chan-Mo Yu of Sungkyunkwan University developed (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 265) a stereocontrolled route to seven-membered ring ethers, by Pd-mediated stannylation of allenes such as 21, followed by condensation with an aldehyde.


Author(s):  
Douglass F. Taber

Varinder K. Aggarwal of the University of Bristol described (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 6673) the conversion of the Sharpless-derived epoxide 1 into the cyclopropane 2. Christopher D. Bray of Queen Mary University of London established (Chem. Commun. 2010, 46, 5867) that the related conversion of 3 to 5 proceeded with high diastereocontrol. Javier Read de Alaniz of the University of California, Santa Barbara, extended (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 9484) the Piancatelli rearrangement of a furyl carbinol 6 to allow inclusion of an amine 7, to give 8. Issa Yavari of Tarbiat Modares University described (Synlett 2010, 2293) the dimerization of 9 with an amine to give 10. Jeremy E. Wulff of the University of Victoria condensed (J. Org. Chem. 2010, 75, 6312) the dienone 11 with the commercial butadiene sulfone 12 to give the highly substituted cyclopentane 13. Robert M. Williams of Colorado State University showed (Tetrahedron Lett. 2010, 51, 6557) that the condensation of 14 with formaldehyde delivered the cyclopentanone 15 with high diastereocontrol. D. Srinivasa Reddy of Advinus Therapeutics devised (Tetrahedron Lett. 2010, 51, 5291) conditions for the tandem conjugate addition/intramolecular alkylation conversion of 16 to 17. Marie E. Krafft of Florida State University reported (Synlett 2010, 2583) a related intramolecular alkylation protocol. Takao Ikariya of the Tokyo Institute of Technology effected (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 11414) the enantioselective Ru-mediated hydrogenation of bicyclic imides such as 18. This transformation worked equally well for three-, four-, five-, six-, and seven-membered rings. Stefan France of the Georgia Institute of Technology developed (Org. Lett. 2010, 12, 5684) a catalytic protocol for the homo-Nazarov rearrangement of the doubly activated cyclopropane 20 to the cyclohexanone 21. Richard P. Hsung of the University of Wisconsin effected (Org. Lett. 2010, 12, 5768) the highly diastereoselective rearrangement of the triene 22 to the cyclohexadiene 23. Strategies for polycyclic construction are also important. Sylvain Canesi of the Université de Québec devised (Org. Lett. 2010, 12, 4368) the oxidative cyclization of 24 to 25.


Author(s):  
Douglass F. Taber

Ramón Gómez Arrayás and Juan C. Carretero of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid effected (Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 6701) enantioselective conjugate borylation of an unsaturated sulfone 1, leading to the alcohol 2. Robert E. Gawley of the University of Arkansas found (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 19680) conditions for enantioselective ketone reduction that were selective enough to distinguish between the ethyl and propyl groups of 3 to give 4. Vicente Gotor of the Universidad de Oviedo used (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 8387) an overexpressed Baeyer-Villiger monoxygenase to prepare 6 by dynamic kinetic resolution of 5. Li Deng of Brandeis University prepared (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 12458) 8 in high ee by kinetic enantioselective migration of the alkene of racemic 7. Bernhard Breit of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies established (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 20746) the oxygenated quaternary center of 10 by the addition of benzoic acid to the allene 9. Keith R. Fandrick of Boehringer Ingelheim constructed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 10332) the oxygenated quaternary center of 13 by enantioselective addition of the propargylic nucleophile 12 to 11. Yian Shi of Colorado State University devised (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 12914) conditions for the enantioselective transamination of the α-keto ester 14 to the amine 15. Professor Deng added (Adv. Synth. Catal. 2011, 353, 3123) 18 to an enone 17 to give the protected amine 19. Song Ye of the Institute of Chemistry, Beijing effected (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 15894) elimination/addition of an unsaturated acid chloride 20 to give the γ-amino acid derivative 22. Frank Glorius of the Universität Münster added (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 1410) an aldehyde 23 to 24 to give the amide 25. Sentaro Okamoto of Kanagawa University designed (J. Org. Chem. 2011, 76, 6678) an organocatalyst for the enantioselective Steglich rearrangement of 26, creating the aminated quaternary center of 27. Most impressive of all was the report (Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 5460) by Hélène Lebel of the Université de Montréal of the direct enantioselective C–H amination of 28 to give 29.


Author(s):  
Douglass F. Taber

M. Kevin Brown of Indiana University prepared (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 3482) the cyclobutane 3 by the organocatalyzed addition of 2 to the alkene 1. Karl Anker Jørgensen of Aarhus University assembled (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 1685) the complex cyclobutane 7 by the addition of 5 to the acceptor 4, followed by conden­sation with the phosphorane 6. Zhi Li of the National University of Singapore balanced (ACS Catal. 2015, 5, 51) three enzymes to effect enantioselective opening of the epoxide 8 followed by air oxidation to 9. Gang Zhao of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry and Zhong Li of the East China University of Science and Technology added (Org. Lett. 2015, 17, 688) 10 to 11 to give 12 in high ee. Akkattu T. Biju of the National Chemical Laboratory combined (Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 9559) 13 with 14 to give the β-lactone 15. Paul Ha-Yeon Cheong of Oregon State University and Karl A. Scheidt of Northwestern University reported (Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 2690) related results. Dieter Enders of RWTH Aachen University constructed (Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 1004) the complex cyclopentane 20 by the controlled com­bination of 16, 17, and 18, followed by addition of the phosphorane 19. Derek R. Boyd and Paul J. Stevenson of Queen’s University Belfast showed (J. Org. Chem. 2015, 80, 3429) that the product from the microbial oxidation of 21 could be protected as the acetonide 22. Ignacio Carrera of the Universidad de la República described (Org. Lett. 2015, 17, 684) the related oxidation of benzyl azide (not illustrated). Manfred T. Reetz of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung and the Philipps-Universität Marburg found (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 8659) that cytochrome P450 could oxidize the cyclohexane 23 to the cyclohexanol 24. F. Dean Toste of the University of California, Berkeley aminated (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 3205) the ketone 25 with 26 to give 27. Benjamin List, also of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, reported (Synlett 2015, 26, 1413) a parallel investigation. Philip Kraft of Givaudan Schweiz AG and Professor List added (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 1960) 28 to 29 to give 30 in high ee.


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