Tetrahedron

One-pot ethynylation and catalytic desilylation in synthesis of mestranol and levonorgestrel

FF Wong, SH Chuang, S Yang, YH Lin, WC Tseng…

Index: Wong, Fung Fuh; Chuang, Shih Hsien; Yang, Sheng-chuan; Lin, Yu-Hsiang; Tseng, Wen-Che; Lin, Shao-Kai; Huang, Jiann-Jyh Tetrahedron, 2010 , vol. 66, # 23 p. 4068 - 4072

Full Text: HTML

Citation Number: 10

Abstract

A one-pot ethylnylation and catalytic desilylation reaction was developed for the synthesis of mestranol and levonorgestrel. Addition of trimethylsilylacetylide to the carbonyl group at C- 17 of the steroids yielded the C-17α-trimethylsilylacetylenyl adducts, which were desilylated with a catalytic amount of TBAF (0.050 equiv) in one pot to provide the corresponding mestranol and levonorgestrel both in 90% yields. A plausible mechanism was proposed ...