Cascade radical cyclisations leading to steroid ring constructions. Regio- and stereo-chemical studies using ester- and fluoro-alkene substituted polyene acyl radical intermediates

A study of the factors affecting the regio- and stereo-selective outcomes of consecutive 6-endo-trig cyclisations of polyene acyl-radical intermediates, leading to decalone, perhydrophenanthrone, and steroid ring constructions, has been carried out. Thus, whereas the E-substituted diene selenyl ester 7 underwent sequential cyclisations in the presence of Bu3SnH-AIBN leading to the trans-decalone 8 exclusively, the corresponding Z- and E-isomers of the methoxycarbonyl-substituted diene 16, under similar conditions, gave rise to a 2 & ratio;1 mixture of the trans- and cis-decalones 17a and 17b respectively in 62-73% yield. Cyclisation of the triene selenoate 30 led to a single tricyclic product in 57% yield whose cis,syn,trans relative stereochemistry 32 was established by X-ray diffraction analysis. When solutions of the trienyne selenoates 41a-c in benzene were treated with Bu3SnH-AIBN they each underwent cascades of three 6-endo-trig followed by a 5-exo-dig cyclisation leading to the full steroid ring systems 42, 45, and 47 respectively in 20-40% yields. The stereochemistries of the major steroid diastereoisomers resulting from 41a and 41c were established as trans,anti,trans,anti,cis, e.g. 47, following X-ray crystallographic analysis of the corresponding dione 44 produced from 42d and 47 after ozonisation. In each of the cyclisations leading to 42 and 45 varying amounts of other bicyclic products tentatively assigned as 43 and 46 respectively, resulting from a competing radical pathway involving first a 10-endo-trig macrocyclisation of the corresponding acyl radical intermediate onto the C9-C10 olefin in 43/46, followed by a 5-exo-trig cyclisation of the resulting radical intermediate onto the proximal C13-C14 double bond, were produced concurrently. Finally, when the fluoro-alkene selenoate 56 was treated with Bu3SnH-AIBN, a complex mixture of polycyclic products resulted, from which only the indanone 57 could be separated and characterized. The origins of the differing regio- and stereo-selective outcomes in the aforementioned radical cascades are briefly considered.