| Abstract: | Phase-transfer alkylation of the 2-oxocycloalkane-l-carbonitriles 1a and 1b with ethyl 4-bromo-3-methoxy-2-butenoate ( 2 ), followed by deprotection and base-catalyzed cyclization gave the annulated cyclopentenones 5a and 5b , respectively, in high overall yields (Scheme 1). Stereoselective catalytic hydrogenation of 5b followed by de-ethoxycarbonylation afforded 14-oxo-cis-bicyclo[10.3.0]pentadecane-l-carbonitrile ( 7 ). Treatment of 7 with LiN(i-Pr)2 in THF gave the known synthetic muscone precursor 8 (Scheme 2). The tricyclo[10.4.0.01,15]hexadecan-14-one ( 14 ) was prepared from 7 in 5 steps by a reaction sequence proceeding without affecting the chiral centres (Scheme 2). The structure of 14 was established by X-ray structure analysis (Figure). |
