Highly diastereoselective conjugate addition of nitroalkanes to α,β-unsaturated sugar lactones for the efficient synthesis of chiral 2-pyrrolidones.

A series of 4,5-substituted chiral γ-lactams were synthesized through a highly diastereoselective addition-rearrangement approach from 2,3-unsaturated sugar lactones. The single-crystal X-ray structure of one product indicated that the sugar ring was attacked from the axial side. Partial reduction of the nitro group produced N-hydroxy-γ-lactams, which were further reduced with TiCl(3) to yield the 4,5-substituted chiral γ-lactams. The absolute configuration of C5 of the γ-lactam was determined by NOESY spectra.