Hydrogenation is a core technology in chemical synthesis. High rates and selectivities are attainable only by the coordination of structurally well-designed catalysts and suitable reaction conditions. The newly devised [RuCl(2)(phosphane)(2)(1,2-diamine)] complexes are excellent precatalysts for homogeneous hydrogenation of simple ketones which lack any functionality capable of interacting with the metal center. This catalyst system allows for the preferential reduction of a C=O function over a coexisting C=C linkage in a 2-propanol solution containing an alkaline base. The hydrogenation tolerates many substituents including F, Cl, Br, I, CF(3), OCH(3), OCH(2)C(6)H(5), COOCH(CH(3))(2), NO(2), NH(2), and NRCOR as well as various electron-rich and -deficient heterocycles. Furthermore, stereoselectivity is easily controlled by the electronic and steric properties (bulkiness and chirality) of the ligands as well as the reaction conditions. Diastereoselectivities observed in the catalytic hydrogenation of cyclic and acyclic ketones with the standard triphenylphosphane/ethylenediamine combination compare well with the best conventional hydride reductions. The use of appropriate chiral diphosphanes, particularly BINAP compounds, and chiral diamines results in rapid and productive asymmetric hydrogenation of a range of aromatic and heteroaromatic ketones and gives a consistently high enantioselectivity. Certain amino and alkoxy ketones can be used as substrates. Cyclic and acyclic alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones can be converted into chiral allyl alcohols of high enantiomeric purity. Hydrogenation of configurationally labile ketones allows for the dynamic kinetic discrimination of diastereomers, epimers, and enantiomers. This new method shows promise in the practical synthesis of a wide variety of chiral alcohols from achiral and chiral ketone substrates. Its versatility is manifested by the asymmetric synthesis of some biologically significant chiral compounds. The high rate and carbonyl selectivity are based on nonclassical metal-ligand bifunctional catalysis involving an 18-electron amino ruthenium hydride complex and a 16-electron amido ruthenium species.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/1521-3773%2820010105%2940%3A1%3C40%3A%3AAID-ANIE40%3E3.0.CO%3B2-5

Asymmetric Catalysis by Architectural and Functional Molecular Engineering: Practical Chemo‐ and Stereoselective Hydrogenation of Ketones

1,2-Amino Alcohols and Their Heterocyclic Derivatives as Chiral Auxiliaries in Asymmetric Synthesis

Oxidation of α,β-un saturated aldehydes

The past decade of organic chemistry may be charcterized as a period of violent development of new synthetic methods. This was accompained by a systematization of the analysis of synthetic problems (synthetic strategy). The planning of the synthesis of an organic target molecule is greatly facilitated by distinguishing between reagents X(C)n … with normal reactivity (acceptor properties at C1,3,5…, donor properties at X, C2,4…) and with reactivity umpolung (acceptor properties at X, C2,4…, donor properties at C1,3,5…). In this context, reactivity umpolung turned out to be useful as a heuristic principle, as a classification scheme, and as an aid for locating so-called strategic bonds (synthon, transform, and antithesis according to E. J. Corey). There are six principal methods of umpolung: 1 2n-oxidation, heteroatom exchange and modification, homologation and its reversal, the cyclopropane “trick”, use of acetylenes, and redox reactions; under certain circumstances none of these techniques is necessary in cases where direct umpolung is possible. Throughout the article, normal reactivity is indicated by green print; reactivity umpolung by red print.

Methods of Reactivity Umpolung

α-Methylene-γ-butyrolactones [dihydro-3-methylene-2(3H)furanones] constitute an important group of natural products and possess wide-ranging biological activities. Progress in the synthesis of the heterocycle and the classification of the synthetic methods are not only of practical interest, but also fundamentally important as a current example for the construction of an unusual 1,4-functionality distance and an α-substituted acrylic ester moiety which is susceptible to nucleophilic attack.

Synthesis and Biological Activity of α‐Methylene‐γ‐butyrolactones

Synthetic studies on (2R,4'R,8'R)-alpha-tocopherol. Facile syntheses of optically active, saturated, acyclic isoprenoids via stereospecific [3,3]sigmatropic rearrangements.

Synthetic studies on (2R,4'R,8'R)-alpha-tocopherol. An approach utilizing side chain synthons of microbiological origin.

Enantiospecific syntheses of leukotrienes C4, D4, and E4, and [14,15-3H2]leukotriene E4 dimethyl ester

Studies on the total synthesis of (2R, 4'R, 8'R)-.alpha.-tocopherol (vitamin E). Stereospecific cyclizations leading to optically active chromans

All eight stereoisomers of α-tocopheryl acetate have been synthesized in a state of high chemical and stereoisomeric purity. Key chiral side-chain intermediates were prepared from (+)-(S)-3-hydroxy-2-methylpropanoic acid. New routes to (2R, 4′ RS, 8′ RS)-α-tocopheryl acetate, a mixture of four diastereoisomers, were also developed. A sensitive gas chromatographic method was developed to determine the diastereoisomeric and enantiomeric purity of α-tocopherol samples as the methyl ethers. It was established for the first time that naturally occurring α-tocopherol is essentially a single enantiomer (2 R, 4′ R, 8′ R), synthetic all-rac-α-tocopherol an equimolar mixture of four racemates, and that natural (E)-(7 R, 11 R)-phytol is diastereoisomerically and enantiomerically homogeneous.

Total Synthesis of All Eight Stereoisomers of α‐Tocopheryl Acetate. Determination of their diastereoisomeric and enantiomeric purity by gas chromatography

Noal Cohen

Papers

Synthetic studies on (2R,4'R,8'R)-alpha-tocopherol. Facile syntheses of optically active, saturated, acyclic isoprenoids via stereospecific [3,3]sigmatropic rearrangements.

Synthetic studies on (2R,4'R,8'R)-alpha-tocopherol. An approach utilizing side chain synthons of microbiological origin.

Enantiospecific syntheses of leukotrienes C4, D4, and E4, and [14,15-3H2]leukotriene E4 dimethyl ester

Studies on the total synthesis of (2R, 4'R, 8'R)-.alpha.-tocopherol (vitamin E). Stereospecific cyclizations leading to optically active chromans

Total Synthesis of All Eight Stereoisomers of α‐Tocopheryl Acetate. Determination of their diastereoisomeric and enantiomeric purity by gas chromatography