mixture of Z/E diastereomers. N-Debenzylation14 of 20 was
followed by hydrolysis of the enol ether unit and NaBH4 reduction
to provide the primary alcohol 21 in an overall yield of 76%.
Tosylation of 21 and cyclization of the primary tosylate (NaH)
yielded the bicyclic lactam 22a (95%). MOM ether deprotection of
22a gave 22b;13e subsequent reduction of the lactam carbonyl
group (BH3?SMe2) afforded, initially, a very stable, non-polar 23 :
borane complex as a white solid.15 The volatile indolizidine 23 was
obtained only after refluxing the 23 : borane complex in 95%
ethanol for 24 h. Compound 23 was purified (Dowex 50x2-400, H+
form) and characterized as its hydrochloride salt.
In summary, we have shown that the Rh2(MPPIM)4-catalyzed
C–H insertion reaction of c- and d-lactam diazoacetates proceeded
efficiently with excellent regioselectivity and cis-diastereoselectivity.
Regioselectivity in the d-lactam diazoacetate is dependent on the
chirality of the Rh(II) catalyst. Reactive conformer models are
proposed to explain product formation from (S)-3. The synthetic
utility of the bicyclic lactam lactones is demonstrated by the
concise asymmetric synthesis of 23 from 4 (9 steps, 34% overall
yield). Applications to other alkaloid targets are in progress.
We thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council, Canada and the University of Regina for financial
support.
Scheme 4 Reagents and conditions: a. Red-Al, THF–PhMe, 278 uC,
94%; b. (i) Ph3PLCHOMe, THF, 240 uC, 74%, (ii) MOMCl, cat. Bu4NI,
i-Pr2NEt. 89%; c. (i) Na, liq. NH3; NH4Cl. quant., (ii) 1 M aq. HCl then
NaBH4, 76%; d. (i) TsCl, Et3N, cat. DMAP, 91%, (ii) NaH, 95%; e. (i) 1 M
aq. HCl, MeOH. 95%, (ii) BH3?SMe2, THF; then EtOH, reflux, 88%.
preferentially through metallocarbenoid insertion into C–Ha (A)
as the Rh(II)-carbene and C–Ha s-bond are aligned parallel to
each other and the insertion is also facilitated by the greater
nucleophilicity of the s-bond (early TS) due to the activating
influence of the amide nitrogen atom.11 Insertion of the
Rh(II)-carbenoid into C–Hb (A) is prevented from occurring
because the C–Hb s-bond and the Rh(II)-carbenoid bond cannot
adopt the proper alignment. Conformer A9 is destabilized by steric
interaction of the pseudoaxial C–Hc and C–Hd with the ligand
wall/N–C(O)(CH2)2Ph of the Rh(II) catalyst. Thus, regioisomer 5
is not formed.
Notes and references
1 C. A. Merlic and A. L. Zechman, Synthesis, 2003, 1137.
2 (a) M. P. Doyle, A. V. Kalinin and D. G. Ene, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1996,
118, 8837; (b) M. P. Doyle, J. P. Morgan, J. C. Fettinger, P. Y. Zavalij,
J. T. Colyer, D. J. Timmons and M. D. Carducci, J. Org. Chem., 2005,
70, 5291 and references cited.
In the mismatched Rh2(4R-MPPIM)4-catalyzed reaction, con-
former B is destabilized by the interaction of C–Ha and C–Hb
with the ligand wall/N–C(O)(CH2)2Ph. However, because C–Ha is
activated by the amide nitrogen, its interaction with the vacant
p-orbital of the Rh(II)-carbenoid carbon can occur at a greater
distance (early TS) resulting in the formation of the minor product
4. With B9, the Rh(II)-carbenoid bond and the C–Hc bond are
properly aligned and C–H insertion leads to the regioisomer 5 as
the major product. Insertion into C–Hd, as with C–Hb in A, is
unattainable for geometric reasons.
3 A. G. H. Wee, J. Org. Chem., 2001, 66, 8513.
4 R. K. Olsen, K. L. Bhat, R. B. Wardle, W. J. Hennen and G. Kini,
J. Org. Chem., 1985, 50, 896.
5 Racemic 2: C. Herdeis, Arch. Pharm., 1983, 316, 719.
6 (a) H. O. House and C. J. Blankley, J. Org. Chem., 1968, 33, 53; (b)
E. J. Corey and A. G. Myers, Tetrahedron Lett., 1984, 25, 3559.
7 Review: D. L. Hughes, Org. React., 1983, 29, 1.
8 Purchased from Aldrich; can also be prepared: T. H. Park, S. Paik and
S. H. Lee, Bull. Korean Chem. Soc., 2003, 24, 1227.
9 (a) The minimum energy conformation about the Rh(II)-carbene carbon
bond is based on: M. P. Doyle, W. R. Winchester, J. A. A. Hoorn,
V. Lynch, S. H. Simonsen and R. Ghosh, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1993, 115,
9968; (b) AM1 calculations (PC Spartan Pro, v.6.0.6) were performed on
the d-lactams with a pseudoaxial and pseudoequatorial diazoacetyl unit:
DHf (axial) 5 231.822 kcal/mol, DHf (equatorial) 5 232.164 kcal/mol.
10 Trajectory for C–H insertion, see: (a) D. F. Taber, K. K. You and
A. L. Rheingold, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1996, 118, 547; (b) M. P. Doyle,
L. J. Westrum, W. N. E. Wolthius, M. M. See, W. P. Boone, V. Bagheri
and M. M. Pearson, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1993, 115, 958; (c)
E. Nakamura, N. Yoshikai and M. Yamanaka, J. Am. Chem. Soc.,
2002, 124, 7181; (d) N. Yoshikai and E. Nakamura, Adv. Synth. Catal.,
2003, 345, 1159.
For (S)-15, the absence of the regioisomer of 16 suggests that the
C3–H bond in 15 is deactivated towards metallocarbenoid
insertion by the amide carbonyl group. This outcome taken
together with that obtained in the Rh2(4R-MPPIM)4-catalyzed
reaction of (S)-3 to form 5 indicated that C–H bonds located a to
an amide carbonyl group are deactivated towards
Rh(II)-carbenoid insertion; b-C–H bonds are not deactivated.12
To demonstrate the utility of the bicyclic lactam lactone
products, the enantioselective synthesis of (8S,8aS)-8-hydroxyoc-
tahydroindolizidine13 (23) starting from 4 was conducted. Several
syntheses13a–d of (¡)-23 have been described; only one asymmetric
synthesis of (8S,8aS)-23, which was obtained in 13 steps and 17%
overall yield from a chiral non-racemic 4-formyl-b-lactam inter-
mediate,13e was reported. Our building block 4 already has the
correct configurations at the two stereocentres and seven of the
eight carbons of the carbon framework in 23.
11 A. G. H. Wee and S. C. Duncan, J. Org. Chem., 2005, 70, 8372.
12 For the deactivation of a- and b-C–H bonds in esters, see: G. Stork and
K. Nakatani, Tetrahedron Lett., 1988, 29, 2283.
13 Racemic synthesis: (a) D. H. R. Barton, M. M. M. A. Pereia and
D. K. Taylor, Tetrahedron Lett., 1994, 35, 9157; (b) C. P. Rader,
R. L. Young, Jr. and H. S. Aaron, J. Org. Chem., 1965, 30, 1536; (c)
T. J. Bond, R. Jenkins, A. C. Ridley and P. C. Taylor, J. Chem. Soc.,
Perkin Trans. 1, 1993, 2241; (d) T. Shono, Y. Matsumura, K. Tsubata,
K. Inoue and R. Nishida, Chem. Lett., 1983, 21. Asymmetric synthesis;
(e) H. K. Lee, J. S. Chun and C. S. Pak, J. Org. Chem., 2003, 68, 2471.
14 A. J. Birch, Pure Appl. Chem., 1996, 68, 553.
The synthesis began with the chemoselective reduction of 4 with
Red-Al1, which gave an excellent yield of the bicyclic lactam lactol
19 (Scheme 4). Wittig olefination (Ph3PLCHOMe) followed by
MOM protection of the secondary alcohol gave the ether 20 as a
15 In ref. 13e, 23 was obtained as a white solid; we think that the product
isolated is in fact the 23 : borane complex. IR nmax (B–H): 2367 and 2320
cm21; 1H NMR of 23 : borane complex is identical to that reported.
3734 | Chem. Commun., 2006, 3732–3734
This journal is ß The Royal Society of Chemistry 2006