The opiate alkaloid (-)-morphine and the Amaryllidaceae alkaloid (-)-galanthamine are well known for their analgesic and anticholinergic properties, respectively. The chemical feature that connects these two molecules is that they are both biosynthesized from an ortho-para phenolic oxidative coupling. Attempts to mimic this aesthetic chemistry in the laboratory for the practical production of these alkaloids have not resulted in good yields of these compounds and there is a lot of scope for improvement. Despite the enormous amount of work devoted to this area, the simple para-alkylation of an appropriately substituted phenol derivative to generate a cross conjugated 2, 5-cyclohexadienone has not been reported. This strategy would avoid the low-yielding phenolic oxidation reaction and the product would merely require a double reductive amination of the aromatic aldehyde and the latent aldehyde (in the acetal) to produce narwedine, the synthetic precursor to (-)-galanthamine. On the other hand, the same intermediate can be elaborated to (±)-morphine via a Henry reaction, followed by reduction and reductive amination. Following the aforementioned methodology, we have successfully completed the synthesis of both these alkaloids via the common intermediate, a 2, 5-cross-conjugated cyclohexadienone. A demonstration of the use of this methodology towards achieving an enantioselective synthesis of these compounds has also been made. The overall yield of the 8 step procedure for galanthamine proceeds in 65% yield, which is approximately five times the yield of the current manufacturing process for this molecule. The synthesis of (±)-morphine, for the first time, allows access to codeine without having to reduce codeinone and, with an overall yield of 20% for the 14 step process, makes this the shortest synthesis of morphine. / text

This doctoral dissertation described herein will be comprised of two parts. The first portion will address our efforts towards the synthesis of [alpha]-amino carbonyls from silyl enol ethers and the second portion will describe our unrelated efforts towards the synthesis of proaporphine alkaloids. A full discussion of the relevant literature, experiments and development of the methodologies will be provided along with all relevant experimental data. Part I: The [alpha]-amino carbonyl moiety has great potential for being a very useful synthetic intermediate for the incorporation of nitrogen owing to the synthetic utility and versatility of the carbonyl functional group. Despite this potential the synthesis has long been problematic owing to their tendency to undergo condensation reactions. We aimed to synthesize them utilizing a protected carbonyl in the form of a triisopropylsilyl enol ether and an electrophilic nitrogen source that could incorporate the nitrogen via an ene-[2,3] sigmatropic reaction sequence. To this end we used an N-sulfinyl carbamate as an electrophilic source of nitrogen that could be utilized for a regiospecific allylic amination of alkenes or could be used to form a highly reactive sulfur diimide that could be used for the allylic amination of alkenes or silyl enol ethers. Part II: Many pharmacologically important and synthetically interesting alkaloids have been formed in nature by the o,p oxidative phenolic coupling of various benzyl-tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids. One major class of alkaloids derived from this generalized oxidation is the proaporphine alkaloids and they possess an acid labile spirocyclic-dienone system obtained from this coupling. These compounds have great potential for being used for their anesthetic properties. Despite the relative ease of synthesizing the benzylisoquinoline alkaloids the application of the biomimetic oxidative coupling to make the quaternary center of these compounds gives very poor yields. We opted to form this spiro-dienone system by using a two step Suzuki coupling-para phenolate alkylation methodology that had been used to synthesize the related alkaloids codeine and narwedeine. In doing this we opted to extend the practical application of this methodology by the displacement of an alcohol derived leaving group. / text