On papaver bracteatum—XIV: Ready access to benzylidene phthalimidine compounds from rhoeadine alkaloid-derived nitriles

The $\text{B}\text{D}$trans lactole alpinigenine (1a) isolated from Papaver bracteatum Lindl. was shown to form the oxime 2a which in turn was transformed to the nitrile 3a by dehydration, the methiodide 4a, and — by treatment with alkali under mild conditions — to the benzylidene phthalimidine derivative 5a, whose structure was elucidated by spectral analysis as well as oxidative fragmentation into 6 and 7.The unique reaction leading to 5a apparently is bound with certain structural prerequisites inherent to 3a, including stereochemistry. When cis-alpinigenine (1b) was subjected to the same sequence, little of 5a accordingly could be obtained, and even none of any phthalimidine was formed from the non-acetoxylated nitrile 11.