Diels–Alder Cycloaddition: Sarcandralactone A (Snyder), Pseudopterosin (−)-G-J Aglycone (Paddon-Row/Sherburn), IBIR-22 (Westwood), Muironolide A (Zakarian), Platencin (Banwell), Chatancin (Maimone)

Abstract

En route to sarcandralactone A 3, Scott A. Snyder of Scripps Florida effected (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 7842) Diels–Alder cycloaddition of the activated enone 1 to the Danishefsky diene. On exposure to trifluoroacetic acid, the adduct was unraveled to the ene dione 2. Michael N. Paddon-Row of the University of New South Wales and Michael S. Sherburn of the Australian National University prepared (Nature Chem. 2015, 7, 82) the allene 4 in enantiomerically-pure form. Sequential cycloaddition with 5 followed by 6 gave an adduct that was decarbonylated to 7. Further cycloaddition with nitro­ethylene 8 led to the pseudopterosin (−)-G-J aglycone 9. The protein–protein interaction inhibitor JBIR-22 12 contains a quaternary α-amino acid pendant to a bicyclic core. Nicholas J. Westwood of the University of St. Andrews set (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 4046) the absolute configuration of the core 11 by using an organocatalyst to activate the cyclization of 10. Metal catalysts can also be used to set the absolute configuration of a Diels–Alder cycloaddition. In the course of establishing the structure of the marine natural prod­uct muironolide A 15, Armen Zakarian of the University of California, Santa Barbara cyclized (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 5907) the enol form of 13 preferentially to the diastereomer 14. Unactivated intramolecular Diels–Alder cycloadditions have been carried out with more and more challenging substrates. A key step in the synthesis (Chem. Asian. J. 2015, 10, 427) of (−)-platencin 18 by Martin G. Banwell, also of the Australian National University, was the cyclization of 16 to 17. In another illustration of the power of the unactivated intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction, Thomas J. Maimone of the University of California, Berkeley cyclized (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 1223) the tetraene 19 to the tricycle 20. Allylic chlo­rination followed by reductive cyclization converted 20 to chatancin 21.