The effects of the nature of catalyst and of the solvent on the stereoselectivity in amine-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis of substituted cyclohexa-1,3-dienes from prenal and monoesters of ylidenemalonic acids

In the amine-catalyzed reactions of prenal with (Z)-5-methyl-2-(methoxycarbonyl)hexa-2,4-dienoic or (Z)-3-phenyl-2-(ethoxycarbonyl)prop-2-enoic acid chiral β-amino alcohols provide for higher enantiomeric purity of the resulting alkyl 4-methyl-6-(2-methylprop-1-enyl)-and 4-methyl-6-phenylcyclohexa-1,3-dienoates than that provided by related chiral amines without hydroxy group. The values ofee attained in nonpolar solvents are higher than those observed in the polar ones. Substituting stoichiometric amounts of a chiral 1-amino-3-methylbuta-1,3-diene for a combination of prenal with 0.1 equiv. of the corresponding chiral amine results in the products of much lower enantiomeric purity. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 84–92, January, 1998.