Diels-Alder reaction of androsta-14,16-dien-17-yl acetates with nitroethylene: product distribution and selected adduct transformations

One-Pot Access to 1,7a-Dihydro-1,3a-ethano-indene and 1,8a-Dihydro-1,3a-ethano-azulene Skeletons by a Sequential Gold(I)-Catalyzed Propargyl Claisen Rearrangement/Nazarov Cyclization/[4+2] Cycloaddition Reaction

An efficient synthetic approach to the tricyclic 1,7a-dihydro-1,3a-ethano-indene and 1,8a-dihydro-1,3a-ethano-azulene skeletons from suitable propargyl vinyl ethers is based on a one-pot, multistep process entailing a gold(I)-catalyzed propargyl Claisen rearrangement/Nazarov cyclization, a [4+2] cycloaddition of the formed six- or seven-membered ring-fused cyclopentadiene system, and a final protection step for the easy isolation and purification of the products by chromatography.

Solvolysis of 14,17-etheno-bridged 16α-nitroestratrienyl acetate and lactam formation pathways studied by LC-NMR and LC-MS. Structures of minor products

The ethanol solvolysis of 3-methoxy-14,17-etheno-16α-nitroestra-1,3,5(10)-trien-17β-yl acetate in the presence of NaHCO3 was studied by means of real-time NMR experiments, LC-SPE-NMR, and LC-MS. The pathway to form 3-methoxy-2'-oxopyrrolidino-[4',5':14β,15β]-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-17-one was disclosed. The intermediacy of nitrile oxide and alkoxynitrone was postulated based on the analysis of the reaction products. The proposed mechanism of cleaving the bridge in the nitro compound is legal for the formation of N-acetoxylactams, nitriles, isoxazoles and isoxazolines.

Enantio- and periselective nitroalkene Diels-Alder reactions catalyzed by helical-chiral hydrogen bond donor catalysts

Helical-chiral double hydrogen bond donor catalysts promote the nitroalkene Diels-Alder reaction in an enantio- and periselective manner. This represents the first asymmetric catalytic nitroalkene Diels-Alder reaction via LUMO-lowering catalysis. To gain an insight into this new process, the substrate scope of our catalyst was investigated by exploiting readily available 5-substituted pentamethylcyclopentadienes. The catalyst was found to tolerate dienes with different steric demands as well as dienes substituted with heteroatoms. The synthetic utility of 5-substituted pentamethylcyclopentadienes is rather limited, and thus we have developed a three-step route to 1,4,5,5-tetrasubstituted cyclopentadienes from commercially available ketones.