Communications
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201104819
Organocatalysis
A Highly Enantioselective One-Pot Synthesis of Spirolactones by an
Organocatalyzed Michael Addition/Cyclization Sequence**
Silvia Sternativo, Antonella Calandriello, Ferdinando Costantino, Lorenzo Testaferri,
Marcello Tiecco, and Francesca Marini*
Spirocyclic compounds are attractive targets in organic
synthesis because of their broad distribution in biologically
active natural products and pharmaceuticals,[1] as well as their
increasing use in a range of important chemical and techno-
logical processes, such as asymmetric synthesis and organic
optoelectronics.[2] On this basis the development of novel
methods for the construction of spirocyclic frameworks is of
considerable importance, particularly when these methods
give rise to the enantioselective formation of an all-carbon
quaternary stereocenter, which itself is considered to be a
challenging transformation.[3,4] Over the past decade, exten-
sive work on organocatalyzed asymmetric conjugated addi-
tions of trisubstituted carbon nucleophiles to electron-defi-
cient alkenes demonstrated that these reactions represent an
attractive solution to the problem of selectively generating
quaternary stereocenters.[4] Recently several organocatalytic
cascade processes involving Michael additions have been
successfully applied to the synthesis of spirocyclic com-
pounds.[5] These methods, are based on Michael or Michael/
aldol-type sequences and provide access to spiro-oxindoles,
spirobenzofuranones, or spiro-3,4-dihydropyrans with high
stereocontrol. The use of novel substrate combinations and
the development of new cascade or one-pot reactions are
significant advances in this field, thus making the asymmetric
assembly of structurally diverse spirocyclic compounds pos-
sible from simple and readily available precursors. In this field
and in continuation of our efforts to expand the scope of
privileged organocatalysts in the field of selenium chemis-
try,[6,7] we herein report the first highly enantioselective
synthesis of spirolactones starting from racemic cyclic b-
ketoesters and the vinyl selenone catalyzed by bifunctional
cinchona-alkaloid-derived catalysts. The operationally
simple, one-pot Michael addition/cyclization sequence is
based on the peculiar properties of the phenylselenonyl
substituent, which plays a dual role as an electron-withdraw-
ing group, during the addition step, and as a leaving group,
during the cyclization by intramolecular nucleophilic substi-
tution.
Initial studies were performed with an excess of the tert-
butyl b-ketoester 1a and the easily available vinyl selenone 2
in toluene in the presence of a catalytic amount of anhydrous
Na2CO3 (Scheme 1).
Scheme 1. Reaction of tert-butyl b-ketoester 1a and the vinyl selenone
2: a one-pot Michael addition/cyclization sequence.
The formation of the Michael intermediate 3a was clearly
demonstrated by 1H, 13C, and 77Se NMR spectra of the crude
reaction mixture. Particularly indicativeare the 13C peak at
d = 56 ppm, characteristic of a methylene linked to a sele-
nonyl group,[6b,8] and the 77Se signal at d = 994 ppm typical of a
phenyl alkyl selenone.[9] This signal is deshielded in compar-
ison with that of the starting conjugated selenone 2, for which
a signal is seen at d = 961 ppm. We were delighted to observe
that the Michael adduct was smoothly converted in 2 hours
into the spirolactone 4a by stirring at room temperature with
silica gel. The excellent leaving ability of the selenone group
in intramolecular nucleophilic substitutions is well known,[6,10]
thus, plausibly this unprecedented ring-closure reaction
occurs through nucleophilic displacement of -SeO2Ph by the
ester group. The tert-butyl group can be easily cleaved by the
free silanol groups of the silica[11] and the released PhSeO2H is
partially trapped by the excess of the b-ketoester.[12] The
presence of the tert-butyl residue seems to be crucial for the
cyclization. In fact the reaction carried out with the corre-
sponding ethyl b-ketoester gave 4a in very poor yield. To
assess the feasibility of an asymmetric organocatalytic strat-
egy, we focused on the use of the easily accessible compounds
5a–g (Scheme 2), which have recently emerged as potentially
general catalysts for a range of 1,4-addition reactions.[4,13]
These organocatalysts, bearing an hydrogen-bond-donor
group together witha basic site on a chiral scaffold, are typical
bifunctional catalysts. They improve yields and stereoselec-
tivities of 1,4-additions by simultaneous activation of both the
Michael acceptor and the pronucleophile. Treatment of the
vinyl selenone 2 with the tert-butyl b-ketoester 1a in the
presence of 20 mol% of the ureidic or thioureidic catalysts
5a–c, which have been successfully employed for the activa-
[*] Dr. S. Sternativo, A. Calandriello, Prof. L. Testaferri, Prof. M. Tiecco,
Prof. F. Marini
Dip. Chimica e Tecnologia del Farmaco, Universitꢀ di Perugia
Via del Liceo, 06123 Perugia (Italy)
E-mail: marini@unipg.it
Dr. F. Costantino
Dipartimento di Chimica, Universitꢀ di Perugia
Via Elce di Sotto, 06123 Perugia (Italy)
[**] Financial support from MIUR, National Projects PRIN 2007 and the
University of Perugia and Consorzio CINMPIS, Bari is gratefully
acknowledged.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
9382
ꢀ 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 9382 –9385