Organic Letters
Letter
Whereas the use of FeCl3 in dichloroethane at room
temperature only led to a complex mixture, the desired
allylation product could be isolated both with InCl3 (52%
The approach described herein should also be amenable for
the preparation of ( )-raputindole A (1) in nine steps from
the commercially available 6-iodo indole (9) in a comparable
yield as that reported in its first synthesis12 and at the same
time offering a much shorter route than the one reported in the
second synthesis of ( )-raputindole A (1).13
Despite the still unresolved control of the stereochemistry at
C-7, the originality of our approach stems from the efficient
preparation of the tricyclic indole ( )-6 in 85% overall yield
from the commercially available indole 8 and its versatility
from the availability of a chiral version of the iridium catalyst to
develop an asymmetric synthesis of raputindole A (1).18
Additionally, with minor adaptations, our route is amenable to
the total synthesis of other members of the raputindole family
such as raputindole B (2) and deoxiraputindole C (5) as well
as to derivatives thereof to support structure−biological
activity relationship studies.
1
yield) and with BiBr3 (66% yield). Inspection of the H NMR
spectra of the products revealed that a 4:1 and 3:1 mixture of
products, respectively, was formed.22,23 Considering the best
yields observed with bismuth tribromide in dichloroethane at
room temperature, these conditions were employed with
methallyltrimethylsilane as the nucleophile, and a mixture of
methallyl-substituted indoles (5R,7S)-14a and (5R,7R)-14b
was isolated in 69% yield as a 1:2 molar ratio. In an attempt to
improve the ratio in favor of the required (5R,7S)-14a, a
second approach was also investigated where the order of the
two key steps was reversed. A Heck reaction of (5R,7R)-6 with
N-tosyl 6-iodoindole (17), prepared according to the literature
procedure,24 provided bisindole (5R,7R)-15 in 48% yield.
Unfortunately, attempts to perform the bismuth-tribromide-
mediated methallylation were unsuccessful, providing only a
complex mixture containing the desired product 16 (Scheme
4).
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
* Supporting Information
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Despite the poor diastereoselectivity observed in the
installation of the isobutenyl side chain, we moved forward
with the 1:2 mixture of (5R,7S)-14a and (5R,7R)-14b and
proceeded to the isomerization to convert the exo double bond
to the required isobutenyl side chain. Treatment with p-TsOH
in toluene at 80 °C afforded a 1:2 mixture of (5R,7R)-18a and
(5R,7S)-18b in >99% yield.25 With the northern and southern
moieties secured, the mixture of indoles 18a and 18b was
submitted to the Heck reaction conditions already employed
for (5R,7R)-6 to provide a 1:2 mixture of (5R,7R)-19a and
(5R,7S)-19b in 71% yield. The removal of both tosyl groups,
which have served well for the assembly of the key bisindole
precursor, was a challenging undertaking. Initially, we
attempted to use TBAF in THF, thioglycolic acid, as well as
LiOH in THF to remove the tosyl groups, but we only
observed product degradation. The use of KOH and CTAB in
THF-H2O under phase-transfer catalysis made the depro-
tection possible, but an inseparable mixture of raputindole A
(1) and its monotosyl derivative was obtained.25−30 An
The Supporting Information is available free of charge at
Experimental procedures and spectral data for all new
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
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Ronaldo A. Pilli − Institute of Chemistry, University of
Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil;
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Authors
Juliana L. L. F. Regueira − Institute of Chemistry, University of
Sao Paulo (USP), 05508-000 Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil;
Institute of Chemistry, University of Campinas, 13083-970
Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil
§Luiz F. Silva, Jr. − Institute of Chemistry, University of Sao
Paulo (USP), 05508-000 Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
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inspection of the H NMR spectrum of the crude mixture,
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revealed the presence of a multiplet at δ 6.51 to 6.53, which
correlates with the one observed in 6-iodo-indole (9),
suggesting the deprotection of the southern indole moiety.
This conclusion was also corroborated by nuclear Overhauser
effect spectroscopy (NOESY) analysis of the crude mixture.
After extensive experimentation, we found out that NaOH in
THF/MeOH at 64 °C was the best condition to remove both
tosyl groups, providing a 1:2 mixture of raputindole A (1) and
its C-7 epimer in 67% yield, which were separated by
preparative chiral HPLC (Chiralpak IA column) to afford
(+)-raputindole A (1), which was spectroscopically identical to
the natural product. (See the SI.)
In summary, we have accomplished the diastereoselective
total synthesis of (+)-raputindole A (1) through stereoselective
iridium-catalyzed cyclization, enzymatic resolution, and meth-
allylation promoted by bismuth tribromide followed by
isomerization, which allowed the northern part of raputindole
A (1) to be obtained as a 1:2 mixture of (5R,7R)-18a and
(5R,7S)-18b. After merging it with the southern part,
represented by N-tosyl 6-iodo-indole (17), via the Heck
reaction and the removal of both tosyl groups, (+)-raputindole
A (1) was isolated in 10 steps (longest linear sequence) in
3.3% overall yield after preparative chiral HPLC separation.
Complete contact information is available at:
Author Contributions
L.F.S. conceived the original synthetic proposal. R.A.P.
conceived the revised synthetic approach and supervised the
experimental work and the writing of this Letter. J.L.L.F.R.
carried out all the experimental work and wrote the Letter.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
§L.F.S.: In memoriam.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
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Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq, no. 141855/2015-0) for
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research support and the Fundaca̧ o de Amparo a Pesquisa do
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Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) for research grants (nos.
2016/12096-0 and 2019/13104-5). We thank and dedicate
this work to the memory of Professor Luiz Fernando da Silva,
Jr. for his dedication to this project during his life. We thank
the colleagues from the Pilli group for fruitful discussions that
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Org. Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX