Synthesis of 6α-methyl-16α,17α-cyclohexano-19-norprogesterone from a 19-methyl-6-desmethyl precursor

After prolonged refluxing of 19-tosyloxy-16α,17α-cyclohexanopregn-5-en-3β-ol-20-one (3) with NaI in 2-propanol, the initially formed 19-iodo derivative (4) undergoes supraface migration of the CH₂I group from the C(10) atom to the C(6) atom, probably through involvement of a homoallyl cation. The resulting 6β-iodomethyl-16α,17α-cyclohexano-19-norpregn-5(10)-en-3β-ol (5) was transformed in three steps into 6α-methyl-16α,17α-cyclohexano-19-norprogesterone (6α-methyl-19-nor-D′ ₆-pentarane,8). The transformation of compound5 into the target product8 also gave a side product, a pentarane with aromatic ringA (10), which was isolated and characterized by spectroscopic methods. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 9, pp. 1688–1691, September, 1997.