An asymmetric approach to the synthesis of byssochlamic acid (1) is
described. Regioisomeric enzymatic differentiation is described in the selective
hydrolysis of dimethyl ester 30 by porcine liver esterase. Chiral dimethyl ester 42
was prepared by desymmetrization of cyclopentene 34 using porcine liver
esterase. A key intramolecular [2+2]cycloaddition-cycloreversion
photometathesis of...
Verrucarol is the sesquiterpene portion of a number of macrocyclic di- and triesters of potential medicinal importance. In this study, a novel approach to the synthesis of this fungal metabolite is presented. An A-B-C route was investigated in which C-3 and C-4 of the C-ring were emplaced using a [2+2]...
PART I. Asymmetric syntheses of both natural (+)- and nonnatural (-)-byssochlamic acid via a [2+2] photoaddition-cycloreversion strategy are described. X-ray crystallographic analysis of the cyclohexylamine salt 99 showed that the structure of the monomethyl ester 100 from esterase hydrolysis of 44 was originally misassigned as 56. The enantiomeric relationship of...
In this dissertation, my research work on excited state dynamics of small organic molecules in solutions is presented. Using femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) as the main experimental tool, the excited state hydrogen-bonding dynamics (ESHBD) of Coumarin 102, a common laser dye molecule, in ethanol solution is examined with <150...
Three approaches toward the core of halichlorine and pinnaic acid are described. The first approach entails a racemic transannular nitrone-olefin [3+2] cycloaddition from nitrone 238. Construction of the nitrone 238 began with aldehyde 241. Another key feature in this route involved a ring-closing metathesis for the formation of a 14-membered...
Molecular chirality plays a critical role in chemistry, biology, and medicine. To study and better understand conformational chirality, it is necessary to obtain structurally interesting molecules that exhibit this form of chirality. Our lab utilizes total synthesis and methodological development to obtain conformationally chiral natural products of interest. We believe...
The epoxide deoxygenation reaction is formally the reverse of theepoxidation reaction. Compared to epoxidation, which has reached its fullmaturity, epoxide deoxygenation has not been as intensively developed.Among the few deoxygenation reagents, a handful are catalytic in a metalcomplex, show high stereospecificity and operate under mild conditions. Acommon feature of all...
The thermal and anionic rearrangements of substituted 1-vinyltrans-
cyclotridec-3-en-l-ol compounds have been studied to determine
what effects substituents would have on the sigmatropic shift when
placed on the two positions of the 1-vinyl group.
For the thermal rearrangements, the a-substituted vinyl-trans-cyclotridecenols
gave both the [3,3] and [1,3] shift products of...