Organocatalytic asymmetric synthesis of trisubstituted pyrrolidines via a cascade reaction

Abstract

A new bifunctional thiourea II catalyzed methodology was developed for the synthesis of chiral trisubstituted pyrrolidines using 4-aminocrotonate 1a/1b and nitroolefins 2a–g as starting materials. Two different N-protected 4-aminocrotonates 1a and 1b were tested for the reaction with 1a giving the desired product 3a with a high diastereomeric ratio (>20:1) but with low enantioselectivity (ee up to 7%). N-Tosyl-4-aminocrotonate 1b, however, yielded the product with moderate dr (up to 68:32) but with high ee in the case of the major trans–trans-isomers 4a–g (ee from 92% to 98%) and modest enantiomeric excess for the minor trans–cis-isomers 4a′–g′ (ee up to 57%). This methodology was also successfully applied when (E)-β-methyl-trans-β-nitrostyrene 2h was used as the starting nitroalkene to provide the product with dr 70/30 and with ee of 63% and 67%, respectively. The absolute configuration of both isomers was established using chiral derivatization with Mosher’s and mandelic acids, with the relative stereochemistry being determined via NMR analysis.