Synthetic approach of norbadione A: new preparation of alcohols from sulfones and boron compounds

The synthetic approach of norbadione A, a pigment from mushrooms related to pulvinic acids, was studied. This compound has the property to complex caesium and has shown an antioxidant activity. The first strategy, based on a double Suzuki-Miyaura coupling between a naphtho-lactone with two boron functions and two pulvinic moieties with a triflate was unsuccessful and has shown a deactivating effect of the lactone. Modifications aimed to inhibit the electro-attracting character of the lactone permitted to obtain a bis(coupled) product with a poor yield. A second approach based on a the cyclization of enol aryl-acetates was studied in order to build the pulvinic moiety in several steps. The important reaction of introduction of an alkyl-acetate from a triflate was realised by a palladium-mediated coupling. The cyclization attempts carried out using a naphthalenic compound allowed us to isolate a monocyclised product. A parallel study was to first build a tetronic moiety and then to construct the exocyclic double bond by a method developed in the laboratory for the preparation of an iodated pulvinic compound. Finally, a new preparation of alcohols from sulfones and boron compounds was developed. Two known reactions in the chemistry of boron were combined. The first one is the reaction between anions of sulfones and tri-alkyl-boranes, the second one is a thermal isomerization which places the boron atom in a terminal position. A new preparation of primary alcohols was thus carried out. (author)