Synthesis of Optically Active Bifunctional Isoprenoid Building Blocks by Rhodium(I)-Catalyzed Asymmetric Allylamine to Enamine Isomerization

The application of the known asymmetric allylamine to enamine isomerization methodology to bifunctional C⁵-isoprenoid allylic amines of types IId and IIe (Scheme 1) is described. It is shown that a number of such substrates can be isomerized with enantioselectivities of > 90% ee. using cationie Rh¹ complexes containing (6. 6′-dimethylbiphenyl′2, 2′-diyl)bis(dipheny phosphine) (BIPHEMP; 9) as asymmetry-inducing ligand (Scheme 2, Tables 1 and 2). Synthetically most useful is the isomerization of the benzyloxy derivative 10a into the (E)-enamine 11a . This isomerization proceeds with very high enantioselectivity (98-99% ee) and affords, after enamine hydrolysis, the optically active 4-(benzyloxy)-3-methylbutanals ((R)- or (S)- 12 ) in chemical yields of ca. 90%. In conjunction, a short synthetic route to the starting material 10a has been developed which has a Pd-catalyzed amination of isoprene epoxide ( 30 ) as the key step. Thus, convenient and practical access to the optically active aldehydes (R)-and (S)- 12 is now at hand. These aldehydes are useful optically active bifunctional building blocks for isoprenoid homologation.