Synthesis of Cyclopropane Derivatives Starting from the Baylis-Hillman Adducts Using Sulfur Ylide Chemistry

During the extensive studies on the chemical transformations of Baylis-Hillman adducts, we examined the introduction of cyclopropane moiety at the primary position of Baylis-Hillman adducts to form vinyl cyclopropane derivatives. Such vinyl cyclopropane backbone is an important entity in many naturally occurring and synthetic pyrethroidal insectides, and could be used for further chemical transformations. Our synthetic rationale is shown in Scheme 1. The starting cinnamyl bromide was prepared from the Baylis-Hillman adduct and HBr according to the reported method. The reaction of and dimethyl sulfide in CH3CN generated the sulfonium salt, which was converted into the corresponding sulfur ylide by treatment with NaOH