Thiol-catalysed radical-chain redox rearrangement reactions of benzylidene acetals derived from terpenoid diols.

The thiol-catalysed radical-chain redox rearrangement of cyclic benzylidene acetals derived from 1,2- and 1,3-diols of terpene origin has been investigated from both synthetic and mechanistic standpoints. The redox rearrangement was carried out either at ca. 70 degrees C (using Bu(t)ON=NOBu(t) as initiator) or at ca. 130 degrees C (using Bu(t)OOBu(t) as initiator) in the presence of triisopropylsilanethiol or methyl thioglycolate as catalyst; the silanethiol was usually more effective. This general reaction affords the benzoate ester of the monodeoxygenated diol, unless rearrangement of intermediate carbon-centred radicals takes place prior to final trapping by the thiol to give the product, in which case structurally rearranged esters are obtained. For the benzylidene acetals of 1,2-diols prepared by vicinal cis-dihydroxylation of 2-carene, alpha-pinene or beta-pinene, intermediate cyclopropylcarbinyl or cyclobutylcarbinyl radicals are involved and ring opening of these leads ultimately to unsaturated monocyclic benzoates. 1,2-Migration of the benzoate group in the intermediate beta-benzoyloxyalkyl radical sometimes also competes with thiol trapping during the redox rearrangement of benzylidene acetals derived from 1,2-diols. Redox rearrangement of the benzylidene acetal from carane-3,4-diol, obtained by cis-dihydroxylation of 3-carene, does not involve intermediate cyclopropylcarbinyl radicals and leads to benzoate ester in which the bicyclic carane skeleton is retained. The inefficient redox rearrangement of the relatively rigid benzylidene acetal from exo,exo-norbornane-2,3-diol is attributed to comparatively slow chain-propagating beta-scission of the intermediate 2-phenyl-1,3-dioxolan-2-yl radical, probably caused by the development of adverse angle strain in the transition state for this cleavage. Similar angle strain effects are thought to influence the regioselectivities of redox rearrangement of bicyclic [4.4.0]benzylidene acetals resulting from selected 1,3-diols, themselves prepared by reduction of aldol adducts derived from reactions of aldehydes with the kinetic lithium enolates obtained from menthone and from isomenthone.