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45568-AC1
Synthesis of Complex Indoles and Related Natural Products
Gordon W. Gribble, Dartmouth College
Indoles that are substituted at the 2- or 3-position with
electron-withdrawing groups (nitro, phenylsulfonyl) undergo nucleophilic
addition, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, and Diels-Alder reactions to give a
variety of indoles, pyrroloindoles, and carbazoles. New methods for the synthesis of furo[3,4-b]indoles and the
novel ring system furo[3,4-b]pyrrole are described for the first time. Diels-Alder reactions of furo[3,4-b]pyrroles
afford indoles after dehydration of the primary cycloadducts. Efficient syntheses of both 2- and
3-nitroindoles from indole are reported.
As a new route to the biologically active 4-aminocarbazoles, such as the
antiostatins, we find that pyrrolo[3,4-b]indoles undergo a high-yielding Diels-Alder
cycloaddition with acetylenic dienophiles, followed by acid treatment to give
the expected carbazoles.
Application to the synthesis of the antiostatins is underway. Similarly, furoindoles undergo a
variety of Diels-Alder reactions.
For example, benzyne reacts with furoindoles to give the expected
cycloadducts, which are efficiently deoxygenated to the corresponding
benzo[b]carbazoles. Furoindoles
also react with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate and N-phenylmaleimide to give
the Diels-Alder adducts in essentially quantitative yield, and an
intramolecular version of this reaction using furo[3,4-b]pyrroles is successful
and is being extended to a synthesis of the biologically active
indole-containing trikentrins and herbindoles. We have recently discovered the Mn(III)-promoted free
radical addition of active methylene compounds, such as malonates, to
2-nitroindole, which is followed by a spontaneous in situ Nef reaction to
provide a novel synthesis of 2-oxoindolin-3-ylidenes, which have found recent
utility in the synthesis of the maremycins, spirocyclic 2-oxindoles, new Cdc25
phosphatase inhibitors, and carbolines. In the case of active methine compounds this novel
radical addition reaction affords the 2-nitro-3-substiuted indole. In an extension of our work to
pyrroles, we find that both 2- and 3-nitropyrroles are reductively acylated
under catalytic hydrogenation conditions in the presence of alicyclic and
cyclic carboxylic acid anhydrides to afford the corresponding N-acylated
aminopyrroles. Moreover, 1,2'- and
1,3'-bipyrroles, which are attractive precursors for the synthesis of bipyrrole-based natural products,
are synthesized in one-pot from 2- and 3-nitropyrroles by a sequential nitro
group reduction - Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis. Recent years have seen the isolation and characterization of
several halogenated 1,2'- and 1,3'-bipyrroles, in addition to the previously
known halogenated 2,2'-bipyrroles.
Notably, "Q1", which is a heptachlorinated 1,2'-bipyrrole that
is ubiquitous in the marine biosphere, is the first natural organohalogen
compound to bioaccumulate in the food web up to humans (Eskimos) who consume
whale blubber. We have now
achieved a very simple synthesis of Q1 that will allow this important compound
to be used by environmental analytical chemists. These extraordinary naturally occurring halogenated
bipyrroles chemically resemble the anthropogenic polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) of environmental concern. We have also just finished and submitted our
work on a simple and efficient synthesis of 2,2'-bipyrroles, which will be
particularly useful for the synthesis of N,N'-disubstituted 2,2'-bipyrroles
having different nitrogen substituents.
This chemistry was applied to the synthesis of the naturally occurring
hexabrominated analogue found in sea birds and derived, we believe, from marine
bacteria. In unpublished work we
have discovered a simple synthesis of 2,3'-biindolyls using a classical
Fischer-Indole synthesis on 3-acylindoles.
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