Synthesis of 1,4,6-Tricarbonyl Compounds via Regioselective Gold(I)-Catalyzed Alkyne Hydration and Their Application in the Synthesis of α-Arylidene-butyrolactones.

We report a direct, straightforward, and regioselective hydration of 1,4-enynes designed from Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts. Under smooth conditions and short reaction times, gold-catalyzed hydration of internal alkynes provides synthetically useful ketones as single regioisomers in yields higher than 90%. The synthetic usefulness of this protocol was demonstrated by the conversion of selected ketones into biologically valuable α-alkylidene-γ-lactones upon reduction with sodium borohydride. In the course of the scope evaluation, we discovered that this methodology could also furnish α-arylidene-β,γ-butenolides.