1. Synthesis from Alkenes
The synthesis of terpene thiols from limonene, α-pinene, α-, γ-terpinenes, terpinolene, and 3-carene via a reaction of them with H
2S in the presence of Lewis acids such as AlCl
3 or AlBr
3 is described in
[44][1]. The addition of H
2S usually occurs without selectivity and is accompanied by numerous side reactions, including the rearrangement of the terpene skeleton, especially in cases with bicyclic systems. The addition of H
2S to limonene
1 catalyzed by AlCl
3 proceeds with no regioselectivity and gives thiols
2–
5 in low yields, with the intramolecular cyclization of thiols
4 and
5 at the double bond affording sulfides
6 and
7 as the main products (
Scheme 1)
[45,46,47][2][3][4].
Scheme 1.
The addition of H
2
S to limonene
1
catalyzed by AlCl
3
.
The interaction of α-pinene
8 with H
2S under the same conditions leads to products
2–
7, as well as cyclic sulfide
9 [44][1].
Electrophilic thiylation of α-pinene
8 with H
2S in the presence of AlBr
3 (A) is followed by the pinene–menthane rearrangement, providing carbocation
10, which, when reacting with H
2S, gives thiol
4. The softer Lewis acid EtAlCl
2 (B) stereoselectively catalyzes the anti-addition of H
2S via the formation of intermediate
11 and leads to
trans-pinane-2-thiol
12 (
Scheme 2)
[4][5]. With a strong Lewis acid (BF
3·Et
2O) used as a catalyst, the Wagner–Meerwein rearrangement occurs to yield isobornanethiol
13 [4,46][3][5].
Scheme 2.
The addition of H
2
S to α-pinene
8
.
The addition of hydrogen sulfide to 3-carene
14 in the presence of AlCl
3 proceeds nonselectively to give the products in low yields. The detected products included a mixture of
cis- and
trans-thiols
15; episulfides
16,
6, and
7; and
para-menthane thiols
17,
18,
2, and
3 (
Scheme 3)
[44][1].
Scheme 3.
The addition of H
2
S to 3-carene
14
catalyzed by AlCl
3
.
Reactions of racemic camphene
19 with thioacetic acid under various conditions were investigated in
[48][6] (Scheme (Scheme 44). It was established that, under catalyst-free conditions and with a long reaction time (12 h), the anti-Markovnikov product
20 was predominantly formed. The use of
p-toluenesulfonic acid as a catalyst also leads to thioester
20, but in a 15% yield. Catalysis with trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TfOH) and InCl
3 at different temperatures gives different ratios of products. The optimal yield of thioacetate
21 (75%), a product of the Wagner–Meerwein rearrangement, was achieved using a catalyst TfOH at 40 °C for 20 min. The yield of a by-product, thioacetate
20, from this procedure does not exceed 25%. The best method to obtain Markovnikov product
22 (82%) with a preserving camphane structure was catalysis via In(OTf)
3 at ≤0 °C. The deacylation of thioacetate
22 with LiAlH
4 leads to racemic camphane thiol
23 at an 86% yield.
Scheme 4.
Synthesis of camphane thiol
23
.
Photochemical addition of thioacetic acid to (−)-sabinene
24 gives a mixture of anti-Markovnikov bicyclic thioacetate
25 and unsaturated thioacetate
26 in an overall yield of 24% and a 3:1 ratio, respectively
[49][7]. The unexpected formation of thioacetate
26 results from cyclopropane ring cleavage. The mixture of thioacetates
25 and
26 was treated with LiAlH
4 to produce thiols
27 and
28 in an overall yield of 95% (
Scheme 5). The obtained thiols were isolated by preparative capillary GC.
Scheme 5.
Synthesis of thiols from sabinene
24
.
2. Ene Reaction of Monoterpenes with N-sulfinylbenzenesulfonamide
An efficient method for the synthesis of monoterpene allyl thiols using
N-sulfinylbenzenesulfonamide
29 as an enophile in ene reaction was proposed in the paper
[50][8] (Scheme (Scheme 66). The interaction of terpenes (α- and β-pinenes
8 and
30; 2- and 3-carenes
31 and
14; and α-thujene
32) with
N-sulfinylbenzenesulfonamide
29 proceeds at a double bond with the formation of adducts
33–
37 with a migration of the double bond to an α-position. It should be noted that these reactions occur stereo- and regioselectively. The adducts
33–
37, when reduced with LiAlH
4, provide the corresponding allyl thiols,
38–
42.
Scheme 6.
Synthesis of allylic terpene thiols
38
–
42
.
3. Synthesis from α,β-Unsaturated Carbonyl Compounds
Thiols are good nucleophiles for thia-Michael addition to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds
[51][9]. However, harsh reaction conditions are required to convert the newly formed sulfide group into a synthetically more versatile SH group. Thioacids (RCOSH) are more attractive as nucleophiles for the Michael addition reaction, since the resulting thioesters can be easily transformed into corresponding thiols under mild conditions
[5,52,53][10][11][12].
Myrtenal-based hydroxythiol
43 was synthesized by two methods with a high yield and stereoselectivity
[5][10]. The treatment of (−)-myrtenal
44 with benzylthiol and 10% aqueous NaOH in THF at room temperature for 18 h led to sulfide
45 (yield 92%,
de 96%). Compound
45 was reduced to the corresponding alcohol
46 (yield 96%) with LiAlH
4 in Et
2O, which was then hydrogenolyzed to hydroxythiol
43 under Birch reduction conditions (
Scheme 7). The hydrogenolysis did not provide satisfactory results because small differences in reaction conditions altered the reaction course dramatically, sometimes producing a complex mixture of unidentified compounds. The same reaction conditions become reproducible in switching to thioacetic acid as a nucleophilic reagent, which demonstrated a high selectivity when added to (−)-myrtenal
44 to give thioacetate
47 (1,4-addition) in yield of 98% and
de > 99%. Thioester
47 was reduced by LiAlH
4 to obtain hydroxythiol
43 in a 95% yield. This one-pot method allowed us to simultaneously convert thioether and aldehyde group to the corresponding thiol and primary alcohol (
Scheme 7).
Scheme 7.
Synthesis of pinane hydroxythiols based on myrtenal
44
.
Trifluoromethylation of 2-formylisopinocampheyl-3-thioacetate
47 by Ruppert–Prakash reagent in the presence of tetra-
n-butylammonium fluoride (TBAF) was carried out at −30 °C for 3 days. Diastereomers
48 and
49 are formed in a 52% total yield and
de 42% with the predominance of thioacetate
48. Deacylation of thioacetates
48 and
49 with LiAlH
4 in dry Et
2O under an argon atmosphere gives the corresponding thiols
50 and
51 with 84 and 90% yields, respectively (
Scheme 7)
[54][13].
Thioacetate 52 was obtained from (1S)-(−)-verbenone 53 by using a procedure similar to the synthesis of 2-formylisopinocampheyl-3-thioacetate 47. The reaction produces one of two theoretically possible diastereomers with the R-configuration of C-2 with a 71% yield (Scheme 8). Thioacetate 52 does not react with the Rupert–Prakash reagent under the above conditions, possibly because of the bulky TBAF use.
Scheme 8.
Synthesis of pinane hydroxythiols based on verbenone
53
.
The addition of fluorine-containing initiator CsF made it possible to obtain the only (4
S)-diastereomer
54 in a 37% yield together with trifluoromethyl alcohol
55 (31%) that is a by-product of desulfurization (
Scheme 8). Deacylation of thioacetate
54 gave hydroxythiol
56 in 73% yield
[54][13].
The synthesis of isomeric hydroxythiols
57–
59 was carried out on the basis of β-pinene
30 (
Scheme 9)
[55][14].
Trans-pinocarveol
60 was synthesized via the oxidation of β-pinene
30 with the SeO
2/TBHP system, and its further oxidation with MnO
2 led to pinocarvone
61. An inseparable mixture of two isomeric ketothioacetates (2
S)-
62 and (2
R)-
63 in a 2:1 ratio in 95% yield is formed during the thia-Michael reaction of pinocarvone
61 with AcSH in the presence of catalytic amount of pyridine at −5 °C. The reduction of thioacetates with LiAlH
4 leads to three isomeric hydroxythiols,
57–
59.
Scheme 9.
Synthesis of pinane hydroxythiols based on β-pinene
30
.
The synthesis of pinane ketothiols
64 and
65 was implemented from α,β-unsaturated pinane ketones
61 and
66 [56][15]. To obtain thioacetate
62 from enone
61, the synthetical protocol proposed in
[5] [10] was used. However, the diastereoselectivity of this reaction under the described conditions did not exceed 33%, as mentioned in
[55][14]. The
de value of thioacetate
62 can be increased from 33 up to 92% if the reaction between pinocarvone
61 and AcSH is carried out in THF in a temperature range from −60 to −65 °C, with pyridine as a co-solvent. The same conditions are applicable for the addition of BzSH to ketone
61, with thioacetate
67 being formed in this case with a comparable
de of 93% (
Scheme 10). Reducing thioacetate
62 via NH
2NH
2·H
2O affords thiol
64 within 4-5 h in up to a 90% yield, while deacylation of thiobenzoate
67 by the same reagent gives the thiol in only a 38-50% yield due to incomplete conversion. Thus, at comparable maximum
de values of thioesters
62 and
67, the preparation of thiol
64 from compound
62 is more optimal, taking into account the higher total yield of thiol and the diacylation time.
Scheme 10.
Synthesis of β-ketothiol from pinocarvone
61
.
A multistep synthesis of 2-norpinanone
66 from (−)-β-pinene
30 was provided in
[57][16] (
Scheme 11). This compound was obtained via nopinone
69 and then ketoenol
68 formation. Ketoenol
68 was produced in a 96% yield from ketone
69 by its reaction with isoamyl formate and
t-BuOK in THF at 0 °C for 6 h
[56][15]. The following dihydroxylation of ketoalcohol
68 by formaldehyde in sodium carbonate solution afforded 2-norpinanone
66 [56][15]. An addition of thioacetic acid to 2-norpinanone
66 was, for the first time, implemented according to the procedure
[5] [10] and then by using pyridine as a catalyst
[51] [9] in THF at room temperature
[56][15]. The main product of this reaction was the isomer (3
R)-
70 (
de 98%) (
Scheme 11). Its deacylation by hydrazine hydrate (NH
2NH
2·H
2O) led to 2-ketothiol
65 and disulfide
71 in a 3:1 ratio, respectively. Because of the mild reducing properties of NH
2NH
2·H
2O and its inability to donate protons, the diacylation proceeds chemoselectively with the preservation of the carbonyl group
[58][17], a behavior that is not typical for LiAlH
4 when used
[55][14].
Scheme 11.
Synthesis of β-ketothiol based on 2-norpinanone
66
.
Pulegone
73 was used to synthesize
para-menthane-derived β-hydroxythiol
72 (
Scheme 12)
[59,60,61,62][18][19][20][21]. The 1,4-addition of sodium benzyl thiolate to pulegone led to a diastereomeric mixture of ketosulfides
74 in a 4:1 ratio. Then, the mixture
74 was reduced under Birch conditions by Na in liquid NH
3 to give a mixture of hydroxythiols
72. Condensation of
72 with benzaldehyde and subsequent crystallization from acetone afforded diastereomerically pure oxathiane
75 in a 50% yield. When oxidized by AgNO
3 in the presence of NCS, oxathiane
75 is transformed into sultines
76, the reduction of which with LiAlH
4 gives pure β-hydroxythiol
72.
Scheme 12.
Synthesis of β-hydroxythiol based on pulegone
73
.
Isomeric α,β-hydroxythiols
77 and
78 were obtained from natural 3-carene
14 (
Scheme 13)
[63][22]. 3-Carene, when oxidized by
m-CPBA, selectively forms
trans-epoxide
79, which is isomerized in the presence of diethylaluminum 2,2,6-tetramethylpiperidide (DATMP) to enol
80 [64][23]. The oxidation of alcohol
80 to enone
81 is successfully implemented by the bis(acetoxy)iodobenzene (BAIB)–2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl (TEMPO) system. Enone
81, being an unstable compound, cannot be isolated in its pure form. The two-step thia-Michael addition of AcSH to α,β-unsaturated ketone
81 proceeds in one pot in pyridine. As a result, only one of the two theoretically possible diastereomers, thioacetate
82, is formed. The subsequent reduction of ketothioacetate
82 by LiAlH
4 leads to two diastereomeric β-hydroxythiols,
77 and
78, in a 1:2 ratio, respectively
[63][22].
Scheme 13.
Synthesis of monoterpene hydroxythiols based on 3-carene
14
.
4. Synthesis from Alcohol via Tosylates, Halides, Isothiouronium Salts
The works
[65,66,67,68][24][25][26][27] cover the methods for the selective preparation of neomenthanethiol
83 using thioacetic acid (AcSH) (
Scheme 14). Starting menthol
84 reacts with
p-TsCl in pyridine to form tosylate
85, which, when heated with AcSK, gives thioacetate
86 in a 77% yield. Substitution of the OTs (
p-toluenesulfonate, tosylate) by the AcS-group occurs with an inversion of the chiral center via the S
N2 mechanism. The reduction of
86 by LiAlH
4 provides diastereomerically pure thiol
83 in a 26–40% yield (
Scheme 14).
Scheme 14.
Synthesis of neomenthanethiol
83
and isobornanethiol
13
.
Neomenthanethiol
83 [68,69] [27][28] and isobornanethiol
13 [68,70,71,72][27][29][30][31] were also synthesized in good yields via isothiouronium salts
87 and
88, proceeding from alcohols
84 and
89 (
Scheme 14).
In addition to neomenthanethiol
83 and isobornanethiol
13, the authors of
[68] [27] prepared 4-caranethiol
91 and
cis-myrtanethiol
92 using the same method.
(−)-(3
R)-Pinanthiol
93 was proposed to be obtained via the Mitsunobu-Rollin procedure from (+)-isopinocampheol
94 [6,7,74][32][33][34] (Scheme (Scheme 1515). The reaction of the alcohol
94 with zinc
N,
N-dimethyldithiocarbamate in the presence of triphenylphosphine and diethylazodicarboxylate (DEAD) is accompanied by an inversion of C-3 configuration and leads to dithiocarbamate
95 in a 66% yield. Dithiocarbamates baced on menthol
84 and borneol
89 were also obtained by the same original procedure
[74,73][34][35]. The reduction of dithiocarbamate
95 by LiAlH
4 gives thiol
93 in a 92% yield. The approach to obtain thiol
93 through the corresponding mesylate
96 and thioacetate
97 was described in
[12][36].
Scheme 15.
Synthesis of (1
S
,2
S
,3
R
,5
R
)-3-pinanethiol
93
.
Geraniol
98 reacts with thioacetic acid under Mitsunobu-type conditions
[75] [37] to form thioacetate
99 in a good yield, which, when treated with LiAlH
4, is converted into the corresponding thiol
100 in a 61% yield (
Scheme 16)
[76][38].
Scheme 16.
Synthesis of thiogeraniol
100
.
The ability of nerol
101 to be converted into bromide
102 under the action of PBr
3, and then into thiol
103 by using NaSH via two successive nucleophilic substitutions with yields of 86 and 66%, respectively, was described in
[77][39] (Scheme (Scheme 1717).
Scheme 17.
Synthesis of thionerol
103
.
Diastereomerically pure hydroxythiol
57 can also be obtained via two alternative routes
[55][14]. The first one involves the bromination of β-pinene
30 by NBS (
N-bromosuccinimide) to form myrtenyl bromide
104, which undergoes hydroboration–oxidation and is selectively transformed to bromoalcohol
105. The nucleophilic replacement of bromide by thioacetate AcS
− leads to compound
106, which can also be synthesized starting from α-pinene
8 (
Scheme 18). The second route is associated with the oxidation of α-pinene
8 to myrtenal, followed by its reduction to myrtenol
107, which is converted into diol
108 by the same hydroboration–oxidation procedure. The further reaction of tosyl chloride with diol
108 leads to both monotosylate
109 (76%) and ditosylate
110 (10%). The nucleophilic substitution of the
para-toluenesulfonate group in
109 by AcS
− also results in thioacetate
106. When reduced, thioacetate
106 affords hydroxythiol
57 (
Scheme 18)
[55][14].
Scheme 18.
Synthesis of 10-hydroxyisopinocampheylthiol
57
from α- and β-pinene.
5. Nucleophilic Substitution of the Activated Methylene Proton
The synthesis of bornane α-hydroxythiol
111 was described in
[78,79][40][41] (
Scheme 19). The nucleophilic substitution of a proton of the activated methylene group in camphor
112 by benzyl
p-toluenesulfonate promoted by LDA leads to the formation of ketosulfide
113, which, being reduced by NaBH
4 in methanol or dibutylaluminum hydride (DIBAL) in THF, gives hydroxysulfide
114, which is capable of being transformed into hydroxythiol
111 by the Birch reduction.
Scheme 19.
Synthesis of bornane α-hydroxythiol
111
from camphor
112
.
6. Epoxide and Thiiran Ring Opening
The nucleophilic ring opening of epoxide 79 with AcSH catalyzed by tetramethylammonium fluoride (TMAF) yields hydroxythioacetate 115, which is readily deacylated by LiAlH4 to form the corresponding α-hydroxythiol 116 (Scheme 20).
Scheme 20.
Synthesis of monoterpene hydroxythiols
116
and
120
based on 3-carene
14
.
Cis-epoxide
117 was obtained according to the known method
[80][42] through bromohydrin
118 in 70% total yield. The interaction of epoxide
117 with AcSH in the presence of TMAF leads to thioacetate
119, the deacylation of which gives α-hydroxythiol
120 (
Scheme 20)
[63][22].
The nucleophilic sulfenylation of carane thiiranes,
cis-
121 and
trans-
122, by mono- (MeSH, EtSH,
n-BuSH, PhSH) and bifunctional (HSCH
2CH
2OH) thiols, promoting with sodium ethoxide and thiolates, affords mercaptosulfides
123–128 with only moderate yields. By-product disulfides
129 and
130 are additionally formed during the reaction of thiiranes
121 and
122 with 2-mercaptoethanol (
Scheme 21)
[43].
Scheme 21.
Sulfenylation of carane thiiranes
121
and
122
.
7. Reduction of Thiiranes, Thiolanes, Sulfonyl Chlorides, and Sultones
Monoterpene thiols can be obtained via the reduction of thiiranes. A method for the directed synthesis of racemic thiol
4 from thiirane
131 through oxirane
132 and isothiouronium salt
133 was described in
[47][4]. The sequential reflux of epoxide
132 with thiourea and Na
2CO
3 leads to the corresponding thiirane
131, the reduction of which by LiAlH
4 gives thiol
4 in a moderate yield. A similar protocol for obtaining racemic thiol
5 was reported in
[1][44]; however, thiiran
134 in this study was synthesized from oxirane
135 using the
N,
N-dimethylthioformamide (DMTF)–TFA system as a reagent (
Scheme 22).
Scheme 22.
Scheme for the synthesis of racemic 1-
p
-menthene-8-thiol
4
and 1-
p
-menthene-4-thiol
5
.
Trans-limonene-1,2-epoxide
137 and
cis-1,2-limonene-1,2-epoxide
138 were transformed by the DMTF-TFA system into
cis-
139 and
trans-1,2-epithio-
p-ment-8-ene
140, respectively (
Scheme 23)
[2][45]. The yield of thiirane
140 is lower than that of thiirane
139, since the reaction is accompanied by the formation of the by-product diol
141, which is yielded during the acid hydrolysis of epoxide
138. The reductive cleavage of the thiirane ring of
139 proceeds readily to give thiols
142 and
143, of which only thiol
142 was isolated in its pure form. Thiirane
140 was proposed to reduce to thiol
144 at only a 37% yield.
Scheme 23.
Synthesis and reduction of
para
-menthane thiiranes
139
and
140
.
Thioketals can also be used as the starting compounds for the synthesis of monoterpene thiols. Thus, the reductive cleavage of menthone dithiolane
145 using
n-BuLi leads to the diastereomeric mixture of menthanethiol
146 and neomenthanethiol
83 (
Scheme 24) (A)
[81][46], (B)
[82][47].
Scheme 24.
Reductive cleavage of menthone dithiolane
145
and camphor dithiolane
147
.
The reductive cleavage of camphor dithiolane
147 induced by
n-BuLi produces thiocamphor
148 (62%) as the major product; the mixture of
exo-
13 and
endo-
149 thiols accounts for only 38% (
Scheme 24)
[83][48].
Some methods to obtain bornane β-hydroxythiols
150 and
151 by reducing camphor-10-sulfonyl chloride
152 are described in
[22,23,24][49][50][51]. As a result of this transformation, two diastereomeric hydroxythiols,
150 and
151, are formed (
Scheme 25). Camphor-10-sulfonyl chloride
152 can also be selectively converted into ketothiol
153 by using PPh
3 as a reducing agent
[84,85][52][53].
Scheme 25.
Synthesis of 10-thioisoborneol
150
, 10-thioborneol
151
, and 10-thiocamphor
153
.
The authors of
[86,87] [54][55] carried out the reduction of bornane sultones
154 and
155 by LiAlH
4 in THF to form the corresponding mixture of hydroxythiols
156 and
150, sultines
157 and
158, borneol
89, and isoborneol
159 (
Scheme 26).
Scheme 26.
Reduction of monoterpene sultones
154
and
155
.