The directed aldol reaction allows the construction of new carbon–carbon bonds in a regio‐, diastereo‐, and enantioselective manner. The kinetically controlled, boron‐mediated aldol reaction is particularly powerful for the efficient synthesis of β‐hydroxy carbonyl compounds. Compared to other metal enolates, the boron–oxygen bond in boron enolates is relatively short which, on addition to aldehydes, leads to tight cyclic transition states and highly stereoselective carbon–carbon bond formation. Moreover, variation of the steric demands of the ligands on boron allows discrimination between competing transition states. Chiral auxiliaries attached to the boron enolate are frequently employed to control the relative and absolute stereochemistry of the aldol products. Asymmetric reactions using chiral ligands on boron are also possible and these produce useful enantiomerically enriched adducts. The utility of boron‐mediated aldol reactions has been demonstrated in numerous total syntheses of complex polyoxygenated natural products, and several of these are highlighted in the Application to Synthesis section of this chapter. Several reviews of the directed aldol reaction are available, including the Organic Reactions chapter by Mukaiyama in 1981. 9 The material covered in this review concerns only the asymmetric formation of β‐hydroxy carbonyl compounds using boron enolates and surveys the literature from 1981 until the end of 1995.

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A highly efficient, asymmetric synthesis of telcagepant (1), a CGRP receptor antagonist for the treatment of migraine, is described. This synthesis features the first application of iminium organocatalysis on an industrial scale. The key to the success of this organocatalytic transformation was the identification of a dual acid cocatalyst system, which allowed striking a balance of the reaction efficiency and product stability effectively. As such, via an iminium species, the necessnary C-6 stereogenicity was practically established in one operation in >95% ee. Furthermore, we enlisted an unprecedented Doebner-Knoevenagel coupling, which was also via an iminium species, to efficiently construct the C3-C4 bond with desired functionality. In order to prepare telcagepant (1) in high quality, a practical new protocol was discovered to suppress the formation of desfluoro impurities formed under hydrogenation conditions to <0.2%. An efficient lactamization facilitated by t-BuCOCl followed by a dynamic epimerization-crystallization resulted in the isolation of caprolactam acetamide with the desired C3 (R) and C6 (S) configuration cleanly. Isolating only three intermediates, the overall yield of this cost-effective synthesis was up to 27%. This environmentally responsible synthesis contains all of the elements required for a manufacturing process and prepares telcagepant (1) with the high quality required for pharmaceutical use.

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[reaction: see text] The Minisci radical alkylation has been demonstrated on a range of commercially available glycine derivatives and proceeds in good to high yield. When extending the reaction to other amino acids, competitive oxidation of the initially formed radical was overcome by using the phthalimide protecting group.

[structure: see text]. The NK-1 receptor antagonist 1 has been prepared in seven steps from phenylglycine methyl ester. The key steps are a double ring closing metathesis reaction of tetraene 7 to prepare spirocycle 6 and a reductive Heck reaction to introduce the aryl moiety. This latter reaction discriminates the olefins of compound 6 and proceeds in a highly regio- and stereoselective manner.

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