DOI: 10.1002/chem.201503569
Communication
&
Synthetic Methods
Enantioselective Synthesis of a-Hydroxy Amides and b-Amino
Alcohols from a-Keto Amides
N. Chary Mamillapalli and Govindasamy Sekar*[a]
Dedicated to Prof. T. K. Chandrashekar on his 60th birthday
Abstract: Synthesis of enantiomerically enriched a-hy-
droxy amides and b-amino alcohols has been accom-
plished by enantioselective reduction of a-keto amides
with hydrosilanes. A series of a-keto amides were reduced
in the presence of chiral CuII/(S)-DTBM-SEGPHOS catalyst
to give the corresponding optically active a-hydroxy
amides with excellent enantioselectivities by using
(EtO)3SiH as a reducing agent. Furthermore, a one-pot
complete reduction of both ketone and amide groups of
a-keto amides has been achieved using the same chiral
copper catalyst followed by tetra-n-butylammonium fluo-
ride (TBAF) catalyst in presence of (EtO)3SiH to afford the
corresponding chiral b-amino alcohol derivatives.
Enantiomerically enriched a-hydroxy amides and b-amino alco-
hols are very important classes of chiral compounds that have
been extensively used as chiral ligands in the asymmetric syn-
thesis[1] of drug candidates in pharmaceutical industry
(Figure 1).[2] Oxidative kinetic resolution of racemic a-hydroxy
amides,[3] asymmetric ring opening of a,b-epoxy amides,[4] and
enzymatic resolution of a-hydroxy amides[5] are the most
common methods to synthesize chiral a-hydroxy amides. Car-
Figure 1. Biologically important chiral a-hydroxy amides and b-amino alco-
hols.
pentier and Motreux reported an enantioselective hydrogena-
tion of N-benzyl-2-oxo-2-phenylacetamide catalyzed by a chiral
rhodium amidophosphine–phosphinite catalyst for the synthe-
sis of chiral a-hydroxy amides (Scheme 1a).[6] Later, Agbossou-
Niedercorn, Motreux and co-workers reported the rhodium-cat-
alyzed enantioselective hydrogenation of isatin with chiral tri-
enantioselectivity.[15] Recently, Riant and co-workers reported
an efficient chiral CuII/(S)-BINAP complex for the enantioselec-
tive hydrosilylation of simple ketones; however, in the case of
a-keto esters, the asymmetric reduction reaction provided the
corresponding a-hydroxy ester with moderate selectivity.[15b]
Despite this recent progress in the enantioselective hydrosilyla-
tion of simple ketones, enantioselective hydrosilylation of a-
keto amides by Cu catalysis for the synthesis of chiral a-hy-
droxy amides has not been established to date.
carbonyl (h6-arene)chromium diphosphanes as
a ligand
(Scheme 1b).[7] Significant research efforts have been devel-
oped for the enantioselective reduction of simple ketones
using hydrosilanes in the presence of various chiral metal cata-
lysts, including Rh,[8] Ru,[9] Fe,[10] Co,[11] Ni,[12] Ti,[13] and Zn.[14] Im-
portantly, copper-catalyzed enantioselective reduction of
simple ketones by using hydrosilanes has emerged as an effi-
cient method for the synthesis of chiral alcohols with high
As part of our ongoing research into the synthesis of chiral
alcohols[16] and the chemoselective reduction of a-keto amides
by using metal[17] and metal-free[18] catalysts, we report herein
the first catalytic enantioselective reduction of a-keto amides
with hydrosilanes to afford chiral a-hydroxy amides by using
a chiral copper catalyst. Furthermore, a one-pot enantioselec-
tive complete reduction of both ketone and amide groups of
a-keto amides using the same chiral copper complex followed
by tetra-n-butylammonium fluoride (TBAF) as a catalyst is dem-
[a] N. C. Mamillapalli, Prof. G. Sekar
Department of Chemistry
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai-600036 (India)
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under
Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 18584 – 18588
18584
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