The vinylogous Mukaiyama aldol reaction (VMAR) allows efficient access to larger segments for complex natural product synthesis, primarily polyketides, through the construction of vicinal hydroxyl and methyl groups as well as di and tri-substituted double bonds in one single operation. In this review, we will highlight stereoselective protocols that have been used in natural product synthesis and cluster them into the four groups that can be obtained from different silyl ketene acetals or enol ethers. At the beginning, an overview on different stereoselective VMARs is presented; disregarding their applications in total syntheses.
The Kobayashi aldol reaction has become a prominent transformation in polyketide syntheses. This methodology takes advantage of the directing effects of the Evans auxiliary and allows the stereoselective incorporation of a four carbon segment with two additional methyl branches establishing an anti-relationship between the two newly formed chiral centers. So far this transformation was restricted to anti-aldol products. We present here a modified protocol that provides the corresponding aldol product with high syn-selectivity.
The impressive biological profile of secondary metabolites isolated from strains of Sorangium cellulosum prompted us to initiate synthetic studies on kulkenon, also isolated from Sorangium cellulosum. The synthesis features a syn-selective vinylogous Kobayashi aldol reaction, recently developed by us, and a ring-closing intramolecular Heck reaction as the pivotal transformations. Comparison of the NMR spectra of the authentic and synthetic material revealed that the proposed configuration had to be revised. A combination of molecular modeling and NOE experiments was used to propose the revised configuration, which was confirmed by a new synthesis.
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