Weiping Tang at the University of Wisconsin, Madison reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 12434) the total synthesis of the tropone-containing norditerpenes hainanolidol 6 and harringtonolide 7 by making use of a strategic [5+2] oxidopyrylium cycloaddition. First, the known ketone 1 was converted through a number of steps to cycloaddition precursor 2. Treatment with DBU then effected the key cycloaddition to furnish the complex polycyclic compound 3. Additional manipulations revealed structure 4 with the lactone ring in place. The tropone ring of the natural structures was constructed by reaction of the cycloheptadiene moiety of 4 with singlet oxygen followed by Kornblum- DeLaMare rearrangement with DBU to afford ketone 5. Double elimination using TsOH then produced hainanolidol 6. The free hydroxyl of 6 was engaged in a C–H-functionalizing cyclization using Pd(OAc)₄ to yield harringtonolide 7 as well. Hanfeng Ding at Zhejiang University developed (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 13256) a concise route to indoxamycin F 12 (as well as the related indoxamycins A and C). The complex intermediate 9 was accessed in only four steps from the bicyclic ketone 8, which in turn was prepared by a route involving an Ireland–Claisen rearrangement and a reductive 1,6-enyne cyclization (not shown). An impressive oxa-conjugate addition/methylenation reaction to produce 11 was accomplished by treatment of 9 with Grignard 10 followed by Eschenmoser’s salt. Some final decorative work then led to indoxamycin F 12. The strained polycyclophane natural product cavicularin 18 was synthesized in enantioenriched form by an innovative strategy reported (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 10472) by Keisuke Suzuki at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Traceless solid-phase α-hydroxytropolone synthesis