Enantiospecific Synthesis Of Tetraquinane Diterpenes Crinipellins

Among Nature's creation, terpenoids are more versatile and exciting compounds, and provide fertile ground for developing and testing new synthetic strategies because of their phenomenal structural diversity. The thesis entitled “Enantiospecific Synthesis of Tetraquinane Diterpenes Crinipellins” describes the first enantiospecific synthesis of norcrinipellin and crinipellins, and the tricyclic core structure of tricycloillicinone, ialibinones, and takaneones. In the thesis, the compounds are sequentially numbered (bold) and references are marked sequentially as superscripts and listed at the end of the thesis. All the spectra included in the thesis were obtained by xeroxing the original NMR spectra. Crinipellins, the first group of natural products to contain a tetraquinane carbon framework, were isolated in 1985 by the research groups of Steglich and Anke from the submerged cultures of the basidiomycete Crinipellis stipitaria. Recently, In 2010, Shen and Li also reported the isolation of four new crinipellins from the Crinipellis stipitaria 113. In the present thesis, first enantiospecific synthesis of norcrinipellin and crinipellins has been described. To begin with, (S)-campholenaldehyde was transformed into the (1R,5R)-7,8,8-trimethylbicyclo[3.3.0]oct-6-en-3-one employing an intramolecular rhodium carbenoid insertion of a diazoketone, which was then transformed into the methyl (1R,2S,6R,8S,10R)-10-methoxy-2-methyl-5-oxotricyclo[6.3.0.02,6]undecane-4-carboxylate via rhodium carbenoid promoted activation of a tertiary methyl group to generate the cis, anti, cis-linear triquinane. The triquinane obtained was then transformed into ethyl 4-[(1R,2S,6S,8S,10R)-10-methoxy-2,5dimethyl-3-oxotricyclo[6.3.0.02,6]undec-4-ene-6-yl]butanoate by a sequence of reactions including an alkylative 1,3-enone transposition, which on intramolecular Michael addition reaction followed by DBU mediated equilibration generated a 5:4 mixture of ethyl (1S,3S,5R,7R,8S,11S,12R) and (1S,3S,5R,7R,8S,11S,12S)-5-methoxy8,11-dimethyl-9-oxotetracyclo[6.6.0.01,11.03,7]tetradecane-12-carboxylates, which were transformed into (12R) and (12S)-15-hydroxy-5-methoxy-20-norcrinipellin-9-ones and (12S) and (12R)-5-methoxy-20-norcrinipell-15-en-9-ones. The methodology has been further modified and extended for the first enantiospecific synthesis of (12R) and (12S) 15-hydroxy-5-(methoxymethoxy)crinipellin-9-ones In 1995, Fukuyama and coworkers reported the isolation of tricycloillicinone from Illicium tashiroi, containing an interesting 3,4,4-trimethyltricyclo[5.3.1.01,5]undecane system. This tricyclic structure was also present in two groups of acylphloroglucinoid natural products, ialibinones and takaneones. An enantiospecific synthesis of the tricyclic core structure of tricycloillicinone, ialibinones, and takaneones have been accomplished starting from (S)-campholenaldehyde employing a transannular RCM reaction as the key step, (S)-Campholenaldehyde was converted into methyl (5R)-6,6,7-trimethyl-3-oxobicyclo[3.3.0]octa-1,7-diene-2-carboxylate via the methyl (1R,5R)-6,6,7-trimethyl-3-oxobicyclo[3.3.0]oct-7-ene-2-carboxylate, which was then transformed into (1R,3S,5S)-3-allyl-7,8,8-trimethyl-5-vinylbicyclo[3.3.0]oct6-en-3-ol containing the vinyl and allyl groups at C-1 and C-3 carbons syn to each other. Transannular RCM reaction of the hydroxy diene led to the tricyclic core structure of tricycloillicinone. Further elaboration of the side chain at C-3 position led to the tricyclic core structure of ialibinones, and takaneones