Palladium-catalyzed cyclization of unsaturated beta-amino alcohols: a new access to enantiopure bicyclic oxazolidines.

Chiral unsaturated beta-amino alcohols possessing a dialkylamino function cyclize in the presence of Pd(II) catalysts and reoxidants to afford enantiopure bicyclic oxazolidines with total regio- and stereocontrol. The scope and limitations of this transformation have been studied.

Short enantioselective syntheses of trans-5-alkylprolines from new functionalized amino alcohols.

Amino alcohols, having an enol ether function, cyclized in acidic medium to give quantitatively diastereosomerically pure bicyclic compounds that were transformed in five steps in enantiopure trans-5-alkylproline derivatives.

The intriguing reactivity of functionalized beta-amino alcohols with glyoxal: application to a new expedient enantioselective synthesis of trans-6-alkylpipecolic acids.

New beta-amino alcohols possessing a vinylsilane moiety were reacted with glyoxal to produce lactones that were transformed in three steps in enantiopure pipecolic acid derivatives. The key step was a totally diastereoselective ene-iminium cyclization, whose mechanism can be viewed as a direct cyclization of the vinylsilane moiety onto the iminium ion. The reactivity of two beta-amino alcohols having an allylsilane terminator was also examined. Their difference of reactivity toward glyoxal can be ascribed to the intervention of a carbocation, which presents a behavior that differs according to the position of the trimethylsilyl group.

Asymmetric syntheses of new functionalized beta-amino alcohols via diastereoselective addition of organometallic reagents onto oxazolidines.

Diastereoselective reactions between (S)-phenylglycinol-derived oxazolidines and two unsaturated organolithium reagents afforded chiral beta-amino alcohols having vinyl and alkynylsilane moieties. When the same reactions were performed in the presence of titanium isopropoxide, a dramatic change of regioselectivity was observed, from the alpha- to the gamma-position, thus producing beta-amino alcohols with allyl or allenylsilane functions. A rationalization of the observed diastereoselectivity was suggested for each case.