Keywords: Medium rings / Ring contractions / Ring expansion / Sigmatropic rearrangements / ZwitterionsThe bicyclic core of the pumiliotoxins was synthesized in nine to eleven steps starting from L-(−)-proline. This chiral pool starting material was initially converted into an optically active 2-vinylpyrrolidine by standard operations. The first key step allowed the generation of a nine-membered ring lactam by means of a zwitterionic aza-Claisen rearrangement. The 1,4 chirality transfer was found to be low, but the double bond of the azoninone was generated with an exclusive trans configuration in a planar-S arrangement. The mixture of diastereomers thus obtained was immediately epoxid-

No abstract

The zwitterionic aza-Claisen rearrangement of optically active trans 4-silyloxy-2-vinylpyrrolidines and carboxylic acid fluoride generated nine-membered ring lactams with high yields. The reaction proceeded with an almost complete 1,4-chirality transfer and the exclusive generation of the E-double bond in the medium sized rings to cause additional planar chiral information. The initially formed azoninones were characterized by a pS-arrangement of the olefin with respect to the ring. The rather kinetically stable conformation underwent a flipping of the double bond to give the pR-azoninones as the thermodynamically stable products. The planar diastereomers were subjected to regio- and diastereoselective transannular ring contractions to give indolizidinones. The stereochemical outcome was strongly dependent from the planar chiral information of the double bond and the lactam unit. The so-formed optically active bicycles bearing a defined substitution pattern should serve as versatile building blocks in alkaloid synthesis.

Unsaturated nine-membered ring lactams that contain (E)-olefins within the ring are characterized by planar chiral properties. Thus, selective conversions of the double bond allowed a complete transfer of the planar chiral information into new stereogenic centers The basis of the transformations was the high activation barrier that prevented efficient flipping of the double bond at room temperature (epimerization pR <=> pS) with respect to the ring. Cycloadditions led diastereoselectively to cyclopropano, epimino, epoxy, and dihydroxy azonanones under mild conditions with moderately high yields. The epoxy azonanones were subjected to regio- and diastereoselective transannular epoxide opening/ring contraction sequences to give hydroxy indolizidinones. The regiochemical and stereochemical outcome strongly depends on the configuration of the oxirane and the chiral information of the lactam unit. The so-formed optically active bicycles with defined substitution patterns should serve as versatile building blocks in alkaloid synthesis.

Keywords: Aldol reactions / Alkaloids / Lactams / Olefinations / Total synthesisThe convergent total synthesis of pumiliotoxins by attachment of the side chain to a suitably functionalized core indolizidinone derivative has been achieved. The use of an aldoltype addition condensation strategy, intended to provide for the stereoselective generation of the exocyclic double bond, gave no satisfactory results. The method of choice was a Horner olefination. Initially, the reactant core indolizidinone was converted into an α phosphono amide by amide enolate formation, enol phosphate generation, and a final phosphatephosphonate migration. The amido phosponates smoothly