Preparation and Odor Evaluation of Both Enantiomers of 3,4,4aα,5,6,7,8,8aβ-Octahydro-5,5,8aβ-trimethyl-2(1H)-naphthalenone and 1,2α,3,4,4aβ,5,6,7,8,8aβ-Decahydro-5,5,8aβ-trimethyl-2β-naphthalenyl Acetate,Four Woody Odorants

The enantiomeric decahydro-2-naphthalenols (+)- 5 and (?)-5 were prepared by enantioselective hydrolysis of the racemic chloroacetate (±)- 2 catalyzed by porcine pancreatic lipase, and converted to the corresponding acetates (+)- 1 and (?)- 1 and ketones (+)- 6 and (?)- 6 . The absolute configurations of the ketones, alcohols, and acetates were established by chemical correlation with natural manool ((+)- 7 ) by making use of a retro-ene cleavage reaction of the known manool degradation product 8 to (?)- 6 . A distinct odour difference between the two enantiomers of each pair (+)- 1 /(?)- 1 and (+)- 6 /(?)- 6 has been found.     

Stereospecific synthesis of the (3aα,11α,12aα)-decahydrobenzo[a]pyrrolo[3,2-g]quinolizine ring system

A stereospecific synthesis of racemic (3aα,11bα,12aβ)-1,2,3,3a,4,6,7,11b,12,12a-decahydro-9-methoxy-1-(methylsulfonyl)benzo[α]pyrrolo[3,2-g]quinolizine (2) is reported. Cyclocondensation of lithiated pyrrolecarboxamide 5 and dihydroisoquinoline 6 afforded the key tetracyclic intermediate 7 . Hydrogenation of 7 gave the 3aα,11bα,12aα-isomer 9 which was subsequently converted to 2 .