Ester Dienolate [2,3]-Wittig Rearrangement in Natural Product Synthesis: Diastereoselective Total Synthesis of the Triester of Viridiofungin A, A2, and A4

Abstract

[structure: see text] An ester dienolate [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement was utilized to access the alkylated citric acid skeleton 6 that is characteristic for the viridiofungins and other members of the alkyl citrate family of secondary natural products. The [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of (Z,Z)-15 provided the rearrangement product (+/-)-syn-16 in moderate yield and with very good diastereoselectivity. A Julia-Kocienski olefination efficiently served to connect the polar head (+/-)-syn-26 with the lipophilic tail (32a-c) of the viridiofungins. Amide formation between the racemic viridiofungin precursors 35a-c and the enantiomerically pure amino acid L-tyrosine methyl ester followed by preparative reversed-phase HPLC provided the isopropyl dimethyl ester of viridiofungin A ((+)-39a), A2 ((+)-39b), and A4 ((+)-39c) as well as the nonnatural diastereomers (-)-38a-c.