Tetrahedron Letters
Enantioselective decarboxylative aldol addition of b-ketoacids to isatins
catalyzed by binaphthyl-modified organocatalyst
⇑
Chang Won Suh, Chul Woo Chang, Keon Woong Choi, Young Jo Lim, Dae Young Kim
Department of Chemistry, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, Chungnam 336-745, Republic of Korea
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
The catalytic enantioselective decarboxylative aldol addition reaction of isatins with b-ketoacids pro-
moted by chiral bifunctional organocatalysts have been developed, allowing facile synthesis of the corre-
sponding chiral 3-hydroxy-3-phenacyloxindole derivatives with excellent enantioselectivity (up to 97%
ee).
Received 15 March 2013
Revised 23 April 2013
Accepted 30 April 2013
Available online 9 May 2013
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Asymmetric catalysis
Organocatalysis
Aldol addition
3-Hydroxy oxindole
Isatins
b-Ketoacids
The 3-substituted-2-oxindoles, one class of compounds bearing
the indole skeletal structure, exist in a number of biologically ac-
tive alkaloids and pharmacological agents.1 Intensive efforts have
been devoted to the development of asymmetric transformations
using isatin as an electrophile.2 They provide powerful tools for
the rapid and efficient construction of 3-hydroxy-2-oxindole con-
taining chiral quaternary carbon center at its 3-position.3 Among
them, the aldol addition of appropriate ketones to isatins should
be one of the most concise and straightforward approaches to this
kind of compounds.4 However, such direct aldol reactions of aro-
matic ketones were very slow, requiring four to seven days to com-
plete.5 In recent years, the enantioselective decarboxylative
additions of malonic acid half thioesters as ester enolate equiva-
lents have received much attention.6 Although a number of reac-
tions of malonic acid half-thioesters as carbon nucleophiles to
various electrophiles have been reported,7 the corresponding b-
ketoacids have received relatively little attention as carbon nucle-
ophiles. There have been a few reported examples of decarboxyla-
tive aldol, alkylation, Mannich, and Michael reactions of b-
ketoacids as surrogates of ketones.8 Very recently, Lu groups de-
scribed organocatalytic enantioselective decarboxylative aldol-
type reactions of b-ketoacids with isatins.9 There are still some
drawbacks to the previously reported procedure, such as the high
catalyst loading and long reaction time required for good
enantioselectivity.
As part of research program related to the development of syn-
thetic methods for the enantioselective construction of stereogenic
carbon centers,10 we recently reported enantioselective C–C bond
formations of active methylenes and methines using chiral cata-
lysts.11 Herein, we wish to describe the direct enantioelective
decarboxylative Michael addition of b-ketoacids to isatins cata-
lyzed by bifunctional organocatalysts bearing both central and ax-
ial chirality.
To determine suitable reaction conditions for the catalytic
enantioselective decarboxylative Michael addition reaction of b-
ketoacids, we initially investigated the reaction system with isatins
1 and benzoylacetic acid (2a) in the presence of 10 mol % of cata-
lysts (Fig. 1) in chloroform at room temperature. We first examined
the influences of the structure of isatin derivatives 1a–1a00 on the
reactivity and selectivity (Table 1, entries 1–3). N-Boc isatin (1a)
was selected as optimum substrate. We also examined the impact
of the structure of catalysts I–VI (Fig. 1) on the enantioselectivities
(79–92% ee, Table 1, entries 1 and 4–8). The best results were ob-
tained with catalyst IV which is binaphthyl-modified squaramide
bifunctional organocatalyst bearing central and axial chiral ele-
ments. In order to improve the selectivity, different solvents were
then tested in the presence of 10 mol % of catalyst IV together with
benzoylacetic acid (2a) and N-Boc isatin (1a). Aprotic solvents,
such as dichloromethane, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2-dichloroe-
thanes, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, diethyl ether, THF, toluene, and
accetonitrile were tolerated well in this conjugate addition with
slightly significant decrease in the enantioselectivities (31–89%
ee, Table 1, entries 6 and 9–16). Protic polar solvent such as MeOH
⇑
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 41 530 1244; fax: +82 41 530 1247.
0040-4039/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.