A reinvestigation of the oxidative rearrangement of yohimbane-type alkaloids. Part B. Formation of oxindol (= 1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-one) derivatives

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/hlca.19960790510

The methanolysis of the epimeric 7-chloro-7H-yohimbine derivatives 2 and 3 was reinvestigated. In case of the 7α-epimer 2, the reaction was uneventful and conformed with earlier observations, i.e., under sufficiently mild conditions, only the imino ether 4 (= imino ether A) was produced. Under the same conditions, the less reactive β-isomer 3 furnished a mixture of both imino ethers 4 and 5, accompanied by the elimination product 11, and by equal amounts of yohimbine (1) and 3,4,5,6-tetradehydroyohimbine (12), which are believed to arise through a disproportionation process of the putative intermediate 5,6-didehydroyohimbine (23). The nature of this divergent reactivity and of the ready equilibration of 4 and 5 was investigated by means of extensive force-field and semi-empirical calculations (AM1 and PM3) of various conformers of the compounds 2-5 and of some possible reaction intermediates.