A Facile, Expeditious Route to the Benzooxabicyclo[3.2.1]octane System. Application to a Short, High-Yield Synthesis of Filiformin

A facile and efficacious route to the benzooxabicyclo3.2.1]octane system has been developed and applied to a synthesis of filiformin (1). The cycloaddition of ethylene to the methoxychromone 13 furnished the oxetanol 14 through a tandem cycloaddition and gamma-hydrogen abstraction sequence. Lithium aluminum hydride reduction to the diol 15 followed by acid-catalyzed rearrangement produced benzooxabicyclooctanone (16), arising from exclusive external bond migration. Similarly, ethoxychromone (17) under the same sequence of reactions afforded the homologous bridged ketone 20. For the synthesis of filiformin (1), methoxychromone 24 on ethylene cycloaddition followed by reduction of resultant oxetanol 25 with lithium aluminum hydride furnished diol 10. Acid-catalyzed rearrangement of 10 provided the bridged ketone 11 which was brominated to give 26. This bromo ketone had previously been converted to filiformin (1), and also aplysin 9, and hence, the present work represents a short, high-yield formal synthesis of these sequiterpenes from a single starting material.